


Abraxas

by hrodvitnon



Category: Godzilla (2014), Godzilla: King of The Monsters (2019)
Genre: A Human Becomes a Titan, Alien Biology, And a Dash of Gravemind, Art, Body Horror, Depression, Dissociation, Elements of Shin Godzilla, Enemies to Friends, Experimental Style, Flashbacks, Hope vs. Despair, Intrusive Thoughts, Mind Meld, POV Alternating, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Runes, Stream of Consciousness, Weirdness, With a Hint of SCP Foundation, painful transformation, redacted text, references to aftershock and the kotm novelization, symbiosis, teaching a human titan chimera how to titan
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-08-07
Updated: 2020-07-02
Packaged: 2020-07-28 06:30:52
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 11
Words: 76,822
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20059573
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hrodvitnon/pseuds/hrodvitnon
Summary: Within the head lies the seat of the soul.  Despite all appearances, Dr. Graham didn't die that night.  Ghidorah has plans for her, punishment for her efforts to contain him.  He will remake her in his own image.  And now Jonah has them both.  But things rarely go according to plan, and the head left behind to keep her is too curious for his own good.  Far too curious... and far too eager to learn.





	1. Hagalaz

ᚺ

From Dr. Chen’s notes:

_“In Gnosticism, Abraxas was the princeps of 365 spheres of heaven. Throughout history he has been depicted as an archon (an entity that prevents souls from leaving the material universe), an aeon (emanation of “God”, similar to Judeo-Christian angels), a god, and a demon._

_“Carl Jung’s Seven Sermons to the Dead (1916) interprets Abraxas as a symbol of duality, combining all opposites into singular form. ‘That which is spoken by God-the-Sun is life; that which is spoken by the Devil is death; Abraxas speaketh that hallowed and accursed word, which is life and death at the same time. Abraxas begetteth truth and lying, good and evil, light and darkness in the same word and in the same act. Wherefore is Abraxas terrible.’_

_“He represents the driving force of individuation – synthesis, maturity, oneness…”_

* * *

_w o r d s_

language many many words many languages sounds etchings actions to communicate to define to name a name is a word defines an individual is a single entity is singular all is

_o n e_

he is only one has never been singular has always been all it is quiet so quiet can hear thoughts now so clear now it is nice he likes the silence he likes to think to see to taste to know but was never allowed teeth at his horn and thunder in his ear _NO TIME NO TIME **NO TIME**_ eldest brother is angry elder brother is always angry so slow why is he always so slow must _LISTEN_

but now it is quiet there is no need to listen he has not been listening for he knows not how long so long too long the link was damaged was cut cannot listen like before it is so quiet so nice now he can think

one he is one is he alone no not alone another a little one small and frail no taller than a tooth what is it who is it what is its word its name is it one as well must be only one head the head is all the head carries the spirit the head is all little one has a head little one has a spirit the body is weak and frail and dying it is dying the green glow it killed the deep one it killed so many little things but not him and not the little one no his flesh protects his blood will heal the little one his flesh is the egg little one must break out to be born or die without being born little one must be born again this is what eldest brother wants is it yes must be eldest brother hates little one because little one contained us in ice eldest brother wants to punish must contain must remake

_in our own image_

one breath two breaths yes good little one will break free soon he will not be alone again no he will be they and they will be all can hear breaths heartbeat blood not so quiet now but that is fine he is excited he has never been elder brother before has never been eldest brother but he will not snap at horns or thunder in ears little one has no horns has no scales no wings no claws no fangs no storm inside he will give little one the storm yes he will give her the storm

name she needs a name does she have a name what is it tell him what is she called

…

vivienne

vi-vi-enne

a nice name a pretty name an old name names have meaning what does it mean what does vivienne mean what does it mean

vivus

_alive_

* * *

**<A. Jonah, audio recording, **██**-**██**-2019>**

Seems we got more than what was paid for. Since Monarch set up shop in Isla de Mara we’ve been forced to transport our new prize to ████████ in ████████████. Someplace cool to keep it preserved. We decided to perform an x-ray before starting any tests and, surprise-surprise, turns out we have a stowaway.

What’s interesting is that, around the time Dr. Russell woke up Rodan, Travis reported Monarch’s first significant casualty: One Dr. Vivienne Graham, head of research and containment of Outpost 32, one of Monarch’s most famous – or infamous, depending on who you ask – members, and Dr. Serizawa’s partner in crime. Monarch’s archives report her as deceased, swallowed whole by Monster Zero himself. Oh, the irony.

As for how she’s stuck in the head instead of being digested in the main body, the x-rays were enlightening. Her body is partially digested, but the head’s interior appears to have formed a tethering line connecting to her spine. Like a meat hook, or umbilical chord.

An unexpected development, yes, but also fascinating. This is a unique opportunity to observe the biological effects Monster Zero will have on a human body. Dr. Graham just saved us the trouble of looking for a guinea pig.

**<End recording>**

* * *

_It's the third day in a row with this headache, as if the freezing cold weren’t bad enough. She’s so tired. But she doesn’t want to sleep, afraid that she’ll have nightmares again. She chides herself for feeling like a little girl scared of the dark. That’s not what frightens her, though. It’s the things she can see and feel that scare her, like mannequins and porcelain dolls; or inattentive drivers on the highway; or suddenly stopping before an edge leading to a fatal drop; natural disasters._

_Dragons._

_She’s not afraid of the Titans. Intimidated, maybe, but too enticed and awed by them to be genuinely afraid. It’s like something in her bones draws her to them, a sense of fulfillment in her gut just by looking at one, or being in the presence of one. Numinous. Godzilla – _Gojira_ – is magnificent. Truly a god incarnate._

_That’s why, even if she is leading the efforts here, she’s so scared out of her mind by that… _thing_ in the ice. Is it dormant? Or is it just waiting? She doesn’t know. All she knows is there’s something _wrong _about it. She never in her life felt her skin crawl before looking at it for the first time._

_Vivienne Graham fears no Titan, but is scared to death of the Dragon._

_…_

the cold the dark he remembers sleeping he and elder brothers are sleeping but aware they are waiting they can smell the blood of little ones remember the taste of little ones he sees this one in his dreams this one is tiny and female and sharp faced and soft voiced she has the blood of the bone singers the corpse whisperers the ones who speak to the gods is she alpha perhaps she builds cages around us _NO CAGE CAN CONTAIN US_ she watches us she is afraid of us but stays close _FOOLISH_ the little ones have alphas! how funny!

he likes this bone singer he likes her

but eldest brother hates her

* * *

**<A. Jonah, audio recording, **█**█****-**██**-2019>**

Payload’s been delivered, and just in time. Another x-ray shows the body seems to be… regrowing. Nowhere near the speed we saw in Isla de Mara, though. It didn’t start until about two hours ago. The running theory is that whatever causes Monster Zero’s regenerating factor requires an outside source in dire circumstances. As expected, the head is slowly siphoning off of **[DATA EXPUNGED]** and it looks to have triggered a regenerative process in the body.

We’ve hooked up the head are picking up minor brain activity. ████ thinks they might be dreaming. Don’t know if people in comas can dream, though.

**<End recording>**

* * *

_"What are you doing?"_

_The guard jumps out of his skin and away from the ice. "Holy shit! Dr. Graham!"_

_She keeps the mood light. Tries to make it look like she's not afraid of what's watching them. "Everything alright?"_

_"Yeah," he stammers, straightens up. "Yeah, yeah, everything's good. You just... I got spooked is all."_

_"Sorry. Why don't you take a break and get some air? Going outside to scream helps me relieve stress."_

_"Never took you for a screamer, ma'am."_

_Is he turning red from his wording or from having his face in the ice? Well, it is kind of funny. She chuckles and sees him out. The way he was pressed up against the ice wall bothers her, though. As if noticing her disquiet he leans in._

_"Dr. Graham, that thing in there... There's something _off_ about it."_

_"I know." _

_"Have you heard it too?"_

_That gets her attention. She furrows her brows at him, wondering if he misspoke. "Heard it?"_

_"_It talks_. Before you came in, uh... I was listening to it. Trying to figure out what it was saying."_

_They look at each other for a moment. She turns slowly towards the hydra in the ice, feeling a shudder creep up her spine. A shudder that isn't from the cold._

_..._

he noticed us he is nothing he is worthless not you no you have the bone singer blood the blood is stronger in you than him you will know our name we will tell you listen listen _LISTEN_ can you hear us _LISTEN YOU WILL LISTEN **YOU THINK YOU CAN CAGE US** YOU WILL KNOW US YOU WILL KNOW OUR NAME_ you can you will say our name you have such a nice voice a lovely voice we want to hear you say our name in your voice **_YOU WILL SCREAM OUR NAME_** you will know

in your bones in your soul

* * *

**<A. Jonah, audio recording,** ██**-**██**-2019>**

█████████████ should be setting in eventually. If getting eaten didn’t kill her, this ordinarily would. Which brings up an interesting thought – has Graham been alive this whole time? Did the head protect her from whatever was dropped on Godzilla in Isla de Mara? Monster Zero is immune to it, and who knows what other oddities it’s capable of. The samples we’ve taken don’t match up with anything on the periodic table.

In any case, a lump has grown where the head and body are tethered together. Whether this is cancerous or biomass being fed to her from the head to provide regenerative tissue, we’ll find out soon enough. ██████ has pointed out that unknown enzymes have been secreted into the body prior to regeneration. Her immune system is active enough to try fighting it tooth and nail, but it’s a losing battle against a biological system unlike anything seen on Earth.

Hm. I wonder.

**<End recording>**

* * *

_She snaps awake in the middle of the night swearing to god that _something_ on the walkie called her from the depths of Outpost 32, and it hadn't been a seal or penguin wandering around the bunker. And she knows it's not in her head because her fellow researchers are staring at the walkie like they've seen a ghost. Even the guards are spooked. She has to investigate in case something's gone wrong or someone's infiltrated the facility. This is her outpost. Her responsibility. She puts on a brave face._

_"Well, it's finally happened," Vivienne mutters to herself as she stalks down the passageway. "Good old Graham is goddamn losing it." At least she's got her new friend Doctor AR-15 for company. Just in case._

_But she knows no amount of firepower in the world will be enough for the three-faced devil waiting for her. Vivienne likes the arctic silence, but this is different. It's the silence of a predator lying in wait. And she's the idiot mouse marching into its den. It must be the combination of chronic headaches that only seem to happen around it, the lack of sleep, and solitude-induced mania, because she's about to do the single stupidest thing in her life._

_"Okay!" she calls out to the monster. "You want to talk, so here I am!"_

_Silence._

_S__he recalls what that guard had told her, and after a while decides, what the hell, presses her ear to the ice. _ _Her face is going numb by the time something happens. Vivienne doesn't know what to expect, but the whisper that tickles under her skin is all the scare she needs._

_Until she looks up._

_An actual scream breaks from her throat when one of the heads _winks_ at her._

_Vivienne dashes in a full sprint until she's in a fetal position on the snow, hyperventilating. Something crackles at her over the walkie. She tosses it aside, tries to ignore it. It's not human._

...

come back come back come back come back _YOU WRETCH YOU COWARD **HATE YOU HATE YOU HATE YOU**_ back come come back come back come back where are you going don't leave us we miss you hear us know us know our name _YOU WILL NEVER ESCAPE US YOU WILL COME BACK TO US WE WILL NEVER LEAVE YOU_ come back come back come home

_ **HATE YOU** _

* * *

> **<Video recording, **██-██****-2019**>******
> 
> [Security footage plays in the ██████████████ containing the head of Monster Zero. Sergeant Travis and others are monitoring the head. Steady beeping from the EKG readings. Vital signs and ultrasound footage of Subject G (Graham) plays in the corner, showing the body is mostly regenerated. Travis appears to notice something on the monitor.]
> 
> **Travis:** What the hell is that?
> 
> ██████**:** What?
> 
> **Travis:** Here, look.
> 
> [Travis points to the monitor.]
> 
> ██████**:** Huh. Looks like a secondary brain is developing in the spinal lump.
> 
> **Travis:** Creepy.
> 
> ████**:** Hey, I remember hearing a story like this. It's about conjoined twins in utero or something, right? One of the twins is absorbed into the other but I think there's still like, brain and teeth and eyes in his body somewhere. I forget where I heard it from, but... shit's fucked.
> 
> ██████**:** This whole thing is the definition of "shit's fucked."
> 
> **Travis:** Whatever, let's put this on the next report...
> 
> **<End recording>**

* * *

_It'd been a unanimous decision to have multiple teams at Outpost 32 on cyclical shifts so that no one has to be there for too long. For their own mental well-being. Vivienne thinks looking like the shell-shocked protagonist in a Lovecraft novel on video chat has something to do with it. Thank god for senate hearings. Thank god for Serizawa's comforting presence. She never wants to go back to Outpost 32 again. She needs a vacation; go somewhere with lots of sun, where she can take a hit, down a drink, and get a good hard fuck. But Outpost 32 is her responsibility. Every guard and researcher there was personally recruited by her. She owes it to them to make sure they get to watch another sunrise and see their families. _

_So of course when Alan Jonah kidnaps Emma and Madison and Godzilla makes a beeline for Antarctica, she has to go back. She knows everyone at Outpost 32. Some of them are friends. Of course Jonah wants to wake up Monster Zero. Vivienne's no soldier, but wishes she had it in her to go in there with Mark chasing after G-Team. Madison is like family, and if something happens to her..._

_She would never in her life expect to see on Colonel Foster's head-mounted camera Emma pressing the button that ends the world. It feels like a personal blow against her._

_Now Maddie's being held by madmen and the devil himself is free. The headache is back. It roars or wails or cackles into the swirling tempest above and she hears it again, that voice that's been haunting her for years now, all this time it was telling her it's NAME_

_"Ghidorah."_

...

you came back you came home to us stay with us little bone singer you came home _YOU THOUGHT YOU COULD KEEP US UNDER YOU THOUGHT YOU COULD CAGE US **YOU ARE NOTHING**_ stay with us little bone singer **_YOU WILL NOT ESCAPE AGAIN_** stay with us you came home after so long never leave us again we missed you little one

scream for us again

* * *

> **<Video recording of **██**-**██**-2019**>****
> 
> [Security footage plays in the ██████████████. Jonah oversees.]
> 
> **Travis:** I’m kind of glad I can’t see what she looks like now.
> 
> ████**:** Damn shame. She was a looker.
> 
> **Travis:** Didn’t know you were into nerds, ████.
> 
> ████**:** Nerds are sexy. Besides, she had some guns on her.
> 
> [Slight increase in beeping from the EKG. Subject G convulses. Travis investigates.]
> 
> **Travis:** Whoa, whoa – what the fuck?
> 
> **Jonah:** What’s happening?
> 
> [Ultrasound footage; Subject G's spine suddenly grows and stretches violently. A portion of the head's neck bulges noticeably; the eyes roll back.]
> 
> ████**:** Holy shit!
> 
> **Jonah:** Is she waking up?
> 
> **Travis:** No - but it looks like she’s hurting! We might have to **[DATA EXPUNGED]** just to keep her under!
> 
> **Jonah:** Do it!
> 
> [The head begins to vocalize quietly.]
> 
> **<End recording>**

* * *

_IT HURTS!_

he knows he knows he knows

_MAKE IT STOP! PLEASE!_

will be over soon he is here he's here don't cry

_OH GOD KILL ME! JUST KILL ME!_

shhhh hush now sleep now he will sing for her sleep now

_HURTS! ...please...! ...make it stop... pl..._

* * *

**<V. **████**, audio recording, ** ██**-**██**-2019>**

Well... that was new. And scary.

So, um. Things are okay, insofar as a severed head pregnant with its now irradiated last snack can be considered “okay”. Graham’s still comatose, but her spine’s stretched out like an accordion. Radiation doesn’t do that. Nah, _he’s_ the one doing it. Eddie the Head there. He's still purring like a goddamn cat. I pointed out that conjoined twin story to the guys and the boss thinks there's some kind of neural link between the two, so... maybe he's trying to calm her down? From Travis' reports and whatever footage we can get of Monster Zero in action, he _really_ doesn't strike me as the comforting type.

I’ve read up on the symptoms of █████████████ and I gotta wonder, is she aware of what’s happening? Her brain’s active enough to register pain, but does she know why? Or how? Is she even awake, or...? Fuck, I don’t know.

Anyway, Graham just went from five-foot-two to five-foot-nine. Then her arms and legs nearly ripped themselves apart to match. Her tailbone’s growing to an actual tail. And now we’re seeing early symptoms of ███████████ all over her body. Just how much is she going to change?

**<End recording>**

* * *

_..._

_Where am I? What's happened?_

dreaming you are dreaming not time yet but soon very soon he is excited

_It's hard to breathe. Wait. What is that light? _

oh not a dream a memory perhaps he remembers this he does not like this memory in water our second battle with the deep one since awakening since eldest brother snatched you up you remember that you do not like that but you are not food you will be so much more you will be perfect my bone singer my sister

_That's... it's green. Why is it greehhhHHHHHHHH_

oh no no no no protect her close the mouth the ears the nose the neck all is closed the green glow is death the green glow is killing deep one and little things many many little things but not him and not his bone singer not his sister no he protects her something is still wrong why is she in pain is she dying

_CAN'T BREATHE IT BURNS CHOKING DROWNING_

of course of course of course she breathes air she needs air he doesn't need air but she does they are already connected fix it make her not need air like him keep her alive save her he is eldest brother now must protect sister must make her strong he must become the egg she will be born again from

* * *

**<A. Jonah, audio recording,** ██**-**██**-2020>**

Things have slowed down considerably after Subject G suffered an attack of some kind. **[DATA EXPUNGED]** and the head calmed her right down. Another regeneration phase is underway to fill out Graham’s latest growth spurt, the second so far. We're estimating her to be around ten feet tall now. We’re seeing much slower changes in the head. _Her_ head, that is. Not the big one. I’m not sure why that’s lagging behind in development. Right now things are largely unchanged except for calcification and new, ingrown teeth. The head's “baby bump,” as it were, is showing nicely. I will admit, all joking aside, that ████ was right. This is disturbingly similar to a pregnancy.

I’m… reminded of when my wife was…

[Jonah inhales deeply. Metal clinking. Exhaling.]

Birthing is a painful, bloody, traumatic thing. I’m planning to increase security and defenses. Form a perimeter for when the time comes. Obviously small arms have no effect on Titans, so we'll have to arm up with a little more punch. Start with tungsten rounds for now and expand from that - things that can punch through tanks. Physically she's not human anymore, but we don't know if any part of her is still there mentally. For all we know the head is just reanimating her corpse and is using it as a flesh puppet.

[A light sigh or scoff.]

It doesn't matter. Whatever damage she, or it, sustains can be grown back from the head.

**<End recording>**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ᚺ - Hagalaz. “Hail (storm).” The ninth rune. It represents the violence of hailstones beating down on thatched roofs and damaging crops, then melts into water that feeds the crops.


	2. Berkana

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks everyone for reading! As is a sort of tendency with my Godzilla works, Abraxas now comes with a tune you can listen to while reading if you so desire, or at any point! This is one of two "themes" I have in mind for the story. Click the rune if you fancy a listen.

[ᛒ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K7ZqZVunCb4)

_“Coexistence, conflict, combat_  
_Devastation, regeneration, transformation_  
_ That is the best I can do for you_  
_ I see a grey gloom on the horizon_  
_ That promises a powerful sun to rise_  
_ To melt away all moons_  
_ It will make the old fires of purification_  
_ Look like dying embers”_

—Krigisgaldr, by Heilung

* * *

breathing she is breathing the time is near very close now they will be siblings soon she will wake up soon she will break free she is stronger now this is good this is enough

wait

is it enough is this what eldest brother wanted yes it is he is foolish he is slow he is stupid he can’t do anything right the link is broken the link was damaged long ago the deep one severed it but he knows he is stupid he knows what eldest brother told him to do and he did it he is doing it she is here she is sister she is soft voiced she will not thunder in his ear and bite his horns no he thinks not he hopes not he likes her yes he likes her

he hopes she likes him

* * *

**<Sgt. Travis, audio recording, **██**-**██**-2020>**

Happy new year. Hell of a holiday we're having, but progress is coming slowly along. As per the Colonel's instructions we're digging through the facility's armory for any leftover goodies from when this place was active way back when. Some of this stuff should be in a museum. Kauffman's going to bring in some anti-tank weaponry on the next supply run, plus the Colonel's pulling some strings himself - said he wants to bring in some refugees from the Mass Awakening, as he's calling it, to do some work around here. I guess anyone who comes here must be willing to do anything after getting their homes leveled by a Titan.

That aside, we've got plenty of samples thanks to the head. It's weird. I know the general theory, that a consistent supply of radioactive energy will keep it regenerating and it's using the recovered biomass to feed Subject G's growth spurts, but... I don't know. That thing still gives me a weird feeling. Before Antarctica, Dr. Russell only had conjecture about it - Graham never gave her any information we can use, other than how it was apparently driving people a little nuts. I always figured that was just the isolation talking; scientists in isolated outposts like Antarctica or in deserts tend to go crazy. I remember her telling me those guys just binge on sex and drugs. Sounds like a fun time.

What was I talking about...? Right, samples. Turns out there are some earth elements in the head after all. The skin and scales have traces of gold, which makes sense - gold would act as a conductor. So we've got some scales, bits of horn that broke off in transit, spinal fluid from the neck stump, and by some freak miracle we've got blood samples. Don't ask me how that works, I don't have a clue.

But here's what gives me the creeps - every time we went to get new samples, every single time, the eyes would _follow_ us.

You know those old anecdotes about how a human head can still blink after decapitation? Like how Anne Boleyn supposedly tried to talk after her execution? The human head and brain need oxygen to talk. So, hear me out. Whatever bomb the U.S. dropped on Godzilla killed everything in Isla de Mara's waters, except Monster Zero. What radio chatter we could catch over all the interference called it an oxygen destroyer. Nevermind the B-movie name, that thing did jack shit to Monster Zero. So... maybe the head can still do what it's doing because it doesn't _need_ oxygen?

No fucking way Monster Zero is from our planet. It's already on some John Carpenter's The Thing level bullshit.

**<End recording>**

* * *

...

d...

dark...

_a l l_

_i s_

...

What is... that sound...?

So low and deep, like purring, but from some immense throat... is it trying to wake her, or lull her into deeper sleep...? It feels like she's been asleep for years, but it wasn't a restful one. Rest, that's what she needs. But not now. Her whole body's waking up, bit by bit.

Touch is the first thing that returns to her. She feels... she doesn’t know. Cramped. Squeezed. Like her skin is too tight and her limbs have turned to ten-ton blocks. But more than anything she feels far away from herself. Why? Think. Where is... here? What’s happened? Can't think. Sound now – muffled. Patterns, gaps of silence, cadence, rhythm... she knows this. Words. Language. English.

_Cogito ergo sum._

Think. Focus. It's difficult when she's so groggy and her head feels so heavy. Why is everything so dark and humid? It's hard to breathe. Her lungs don't feel right. Move. Try moving. Her foot twitches. Ah, there. Now stretch out... she doesn't get far. Her foot slides down a sticky, fleshy barrier. She aches all over and feels unbelievably stiff, but at least she can move. Maybe, if she can get out of this space she can breathe easier. So dark, humid, and wet - she doesn't like it. Why is that? She'd probably remember if her mind weren't so full of mist and fog.

_time to wake up_

_Trying,_ she thinks back, and that seems perfectly normal. She rolls and flexes her shoulders, trying to pop the kinks out. So heavy.

_can't hold much longer time to move_

_I'm trying. It's hard to move._

_this one helps_

Help. Oh, that sounds so nice. Something pushes her and there's a wet, smacking, _squelching_ \- she really doesn't like that, but can't remember why. There! Open space! She tries to breathe but only gulps down moist, stale air. There's a sense of resistance when she attempts forcing her eyes open, like the hesitation to open them while swimming in saltwater.

_help this one helps_

It doesn't occur to her right away that this shouldn't be normal, hearing a voice like this in her head. Well, not quite in her head. Or, is it? It sounds close, at the nape of her neck. Maybe this is just a fever dream, or a state of delirium after what happened... wait. What happened? Something important, she recalls that much. Sensei was there. Oh, it's so good to have his company. She hopes he's alright. But why wouldn't he—

AIR!

Blessed, cool air! The barrier tears and she takes in huge gulps of air as if she'd been drowning. It gives her the strength to pull herself out of that confined space and into the air. Oh, but it's so cold and she feels naked. And so bright. It hurts her eyes. So, so cold...

_"MARK! Can you get up?!"_

_"I'm stuck!"_

_"Are you alright?!"_

_"I got it, I got it! Now GO!"_

Shit! That's right! They were at Outpost 32! Her, Dr. Serizawa, Colonel Foster, G-Team, and Mark! Emma and Madison were kidnapped and the ORCA taken with them. Even Godzilla was headed there! Adrenaline pumps through her. All the friends she's made, the ones she promised to aid if anything happened – she could see their bodies from the Osprey... oh, god...

And then—

Who's watching her?

Her eyelids peel apart and she covers them from that blinding light with her hand – what the...? Is that... what's wrong with her hands? How did they get so swollen and gnarled – is that BONE? No, no, no. This is just a dream. This is a nightmare. She's going to wake up any second now. Come on, wake up. She slaps at her face and freezes feeling exposed muscle and teeth instead of skin. What...? _What?!_ She pats her face; are her eyes watering from the intense light or something else? Why is her skin so tough and leathery? Why does she feel protruding bone?! That man standing in front of her, why does he look so small?! Why is he aiming his weapon at her?!

_not a dream_

Heart's pounding against her rib cage, blood races through her veins like a river of knives – oh god, she _knows_ this voice, doesn't she? The whisper that crawled up her spine and slithered into her brain for three years like spiders under her skin, that told her the Dragon's name, _that accursed name!_ She looks over her shoulder and suddenly she's not here anymore, she's on the ice, the Osprey's fallen into a crevasse and Godzilla's on a warpath, grappling with Ghidorah...

Nuclear blue blazes up Godzilla's back and he blasts atomic fire, but the dragon slips around it and returns fire with triple beams of lightning and they strike true, the force sending Godzilla toppling down – he's falling! His head plummets right beside her! They could have looked each other in the eye! Instead she looks up into the wicked gaze of the Dragon, the leering faces and ear-splitting giggles, teeth snap around her and everything is dark – _what just happened? Did it miss?_ Oh god, the ice is lifting, _lifting_ – she scrambles for a hold of something, _anything,_ the ice is breaking apart under its jaws, she lands on something hot and _slimy oh my god that's its TONGUE_ she's falling _oh god no not this NOT LIKE THIS I DON'T WANT TO DIE—_

_hello sister_

She screams.

* * *

> **<Incident Log,** ██**-**██**\- 2020>**
> 
> **Foreword:** At the behest of Colonel Jonah, at least two teams have formed a perimeter around the head, heretofore referred to as Subject G1, in preparation for the head to “give birth”. Both squads are armed with hazmat suits, Geiger counters, heavy weapons, and one member of each squad (Red Team: Tejada, Blue Team: Sullivan) is equipped with a helmet-mounted camera. At key points within the facility Teams Green and Yellow have set up defensive perimeters; both teams are primarily armed with M2A1 heavy machine guns and Carl Gustaf recoilless rifles. The following is a transcript of the visual and audio feed between Squads A and B and command.]
> 
> **<Begin Log>**
> 
> [Red Team: Tejada’s head-mounted camera is switched on and shows Teams Red and Blue flanking both sides of the door leading to ██████████████.]
> 
> **Tejada:** Mic check.
> 
> **Sullivan:** Testing. One two three.
> 
> **Command:** _We read you loud and clear._
> 
> **Green Leader:** _Check, check._
> 
> **Yellow Leader:** _One two three._
> 
> **Command:** _All clear._
> 
> [Sergeant Travis activates optical and hand print scans, swipes security card. The maglock door slides open.]
> 
> **Command:** _Attention, Red and Blue Teams. Please enter the_ ██████████████ _and approach Subject G1._
> 
> [Red Team piles in and forms a firing line at the mouth side, weapons raised and safeties on. Blue Team follows shortly after, flanking Subject G1. Geiger counters tick slowly. The neck is massively swollen, pulsates slightly at intervals. Tejada raises her rifle to Subject G1’s eyes, trains on the horns. Subject G1’s eyes follow the barrel’s movement; appears to make eye contact with Tejada.]
> 
> **Tejada:** Command, eyes are following me.
> 
> **Command:** _Red Team, please confirm?_
> 
> **Red Leader: **Movement confirmed.
> 
> **Command:** _Officers Tejada and Sullivan, please approach Subject G1 and provide visual._
> 
> [Tejada approaches and maintains eye contact with the head. The eyes continue to follow. Both Tejada and Sullivan circle the head to give a full visual. Tejada approaches the neck and pauses, seems to consider the pulsations.]
> 
> **Tejada:** Picking up sound.
> 
> **Sullivan:** Confirmed.
> 
> **Command:** _Please describe the sound._
> 
> [Tejada approaches. Camera equipment picks up muffled rhythmic sounds from inside the head.]
> 
> **Sullivan:** Subject appears to be breathing, sir. I think I hear a pulse, too.
> 
> **Tejada:** Confirmed. Sounds like Baby G.
> 
> **Command:** _Acknowledged. Continue visual survey._
> 
> [Cut to Blue Team, Sullivan. He pans over the horns and approaches the head. Subject G1’s eye follows his movement. Sullivan mutters how “goddamn creepy” it is. Lowers to investigate the mouth. Saliva drips from between the teeth.]
> 
> **Sullivan:** Uh... mouth has started drooling.
> 
> [The head begins to vocalize. Sullivan reaches for weapon safety.]
> 
> **Red Leader:** It’s just purring, Sullivan. He does that sometimes.
> 
> **Sullivan:** Sounds like throat singing. How the hell can it even—
> 
> **Blue Leader:** Movement! At the neck!
> 
> [Pan to the neck. Sullivan backs up seeing the outline of a foot press against the neck’s interior and slide down.]
> 
> **Tejada:** Baby’s kicking.
> 
> [After approximately two minutes the head goes silent. Camera pans back to the eyes which have rolled back in their sockets. Subject G1 produces a throaty, gulping sound. The jaws snap apart a foot, saliva flying, and the jaws continue to slowly open until the head begins to topple over. Subject G1 starts dry heaving.]
> 
> **Red Leader:** Command, the head is... uh, either about to vomit or it’s going into labor...
> 
> **Command:** _Positions!_
> 
> [Sullivan and Tejada each take up the other’s position. Sullivan’s camera zooms into the open mouth. Something is being ejected from the throat. Subject G1’s jaws dislodge to accommodate its passage. It is covered in a translucent membrane similar to the kind Monster Zero’s left head regenerated from in Isla de Mara. The creature within the membrane emits a low, wet gurgling and appears to struggle. Subject G1’s jaws close gently around it, teeth piercing the membrane and allowing it to break loose. The membrane tears and the entity takes a massive gasp of air. Camera zooms in. What little is seen of the entity shows a human-like mouth, lips intact save for the sides where long, ingrown sharp teeth have torn the flesh apart.]
> 
> **Sullivan:** Jesus... I-I think that’s Graham...
> 
> **Command:** _Get a visual, please._
> 
> [The subject struggles some more before finally pulling free and drags itself out of the throat. Subject G (formerly Dr. Vivienne Graham) groans and folds both arms around its head to shield from the light, curls into a fetal position, shivering. Chattering teeth is heard. Sullivan cautiously approaches, camera zooming in at intervals. Subject is emaciated and mutated, all reddish skin leathery with keloid scars from radiation, sinewy muscle; exhibits symptoms of fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva (FOP) at an unheard of level, as well as swelling in joins from calcification; bone matter protrudes through skin at the knuckles and elbows. Skeletal tail sweeps the floor.]
> 
> **Sullivan:** What the fuck did it do to you...?
> 
> [The spine is swollen and hunched from what appears to be a severely advanced from of FOP as well as calcification. Camera zooms into the spinal hunch. An eye opens and stares back.]
> 
> **Sullivan:** Jesus – _Jesus Christ!_
> 
> **Red Leader:** Weapons ready – hold fire!
> 
> [Sullivan slips over saliva while backing away and is knocked on his back. Camera shakes and looks to the ceiling, shakes violently; view returns to Subject G. Subject G raises its head up, appears dazed and disoriented. Shakes its head, groaning in a similar tone as Subject G1’s “throat singing”. Despite the keloids and skull-like appearance, the shape of the head distinctly matches that of Dr. Graham.]
> 
> [Subject G looks around, shielding its face from the light. Blinks rapidly, examines its clawed hands and pats down face; facial muscles pull back in confusion and horror. Subject’s breathing becomes labored and borders on hyperventilation as it twists around and sees the head. Subject G emits a vocalization like Monster Zero’s wailing roar and a human screaming.]
> 
> **Blue Leader:** Command! Orders!
> 
> [Subject G tears its lower body free from Subject G1’s mouth and charges into Red Team. Camera is violently shaken. Visual tearing. A distorted scream of “sensei” can be heard in Subject’s vocalizations. Camera settles on Subject G’s face, lowers to see Subject grasping Sullivan in its hands, claws piercing his flesh.]
> 
> **Subject G: ** _Hhhheeelp... mmmeeeeee...!_
> 
> **Command:** (Audio interference.) _…pen fire!_
> 
> [Audio distorts from the pitch of Subject G’s screeching as both teams open fire. Sullivan lets out a gurgling scream. Camera plummets and hits the floor. Vibrations from Subject G’s footsteps. Sullivan’s lower body is dropped. Two members of Red Team are tossed at the wall in pieces.]
> 
> **<Security feed>**
> 
> [Subject G scrambles into the hallway, the upper torso of one Red Team member in its mouth. Its gait is stiff and awkward, as if suffering crippling wounds and must move by throwing its body forward. Blood and viscera from Red Team is splattered across the walls and floor. Blue Team begins pursuit.]
> 
> **Command:** _Green Team and Yellow Team! Subject has breached containment and Blue Team is in pursuit! Prepare to engage!_
> 
> [Sound cuts out. Cut to Yellow Team. Subject G banks the corner and Yellow Leader fires the Carl Gustaf. Round impacts against Subject G's head and detonates. The smoke clears and Subject is prone, sustained damage to the jaw and shoulder. Subject G cries and screams out as Yellow Team opens fire and rather than charge through Subject G attempts to flee the onslaught; Yellow Leader reloads to fire again. Camera feed terminates.]
> 
> **End Log**
> 
> **Postword:** After cutting through Red Team, Subject breached containment and was met with resistance from Yellow Team, with Blue and Green Teams herding it to a separate chamber with a functional containment field. Green and Yellow Teams have set up defenses at the chamber door in preparation of another potential breach. Based on the footage, Colonel Jonah theorizes that Subject G's attempted flight was triggered by a fear response to Subject G1, the head. Usage of the Carl Gustaf has proven some effectiveness, but this may only be due to Subject G's status as a newborn Titan, and that some human limitations may still be in effect. As such, Colonel Jonah advises all personnel to maintain regular weapon upgrades coinciding with Subject G's growth.

* * *

The blood clots and holes close, the only evidence they were ever there at all being fresh keloids that grow in their place. And even these will be gone soon, like healing scabs. But the hurt is still there - _Christ!_ It hurts all over! Mostly dulled, but it surges into a sharp sting if she makes a sudden move. She's collapsed onto her side and cradles her head, feeling the... she doesn't know what it's called. That sensation of skin and muscle flexing over her skull. Counts the protuberances lining down her cranium like a reptile's spikes, horns, or crest. She's covered in a sheen of sweat, tears lining down from her sunken eyes. The raw red patches, blisters, and ulcers, radiation burns... she remembers seeing something like this many years ago. Is this how those poor miners from that Philippine mine felt?

At least they didn't have to live long. She remembers what one miner said as he pointed at Serizawa, his words translated by a nurse...

_"People like you... you came here, raped the earth. You tore holes in her flesh... and now she's given birth to a demon."_

Vivienne sniffs and chokes on the stench of gore clinging to the hooks her once short, blunt nails have turned into, feels bile bubbling inside. Has she unconsciously smeared the blood of those men on her face? That one man - the one she clung to, she only meant to grab his shoulders or armor, she didn't mean to do what she did... a globe of air bursts from her mouth, recalling how _easily_ he was... him and the others... she covers her mouth, feeling sick.

_are you hurt_

"GET OUT OF MY HEAD!" Her own voice sounds _wrong._ Too low and garbled. That other voice is stilted and halting and lacks an accent; as if something is imitating the noises that words make than a person talking, yet there's an intelligence behind it. It makes her skin crawl.

_not there not in your head this one has a head_

...what? She turns her head. Her neck isn't supposed to move like this, it shouldn't feel like a sinewy trunk. She shouldn't be able to look at her own back like this! God, just looking at that tumorous, bony hunch on her back hurts...

Eyes are staring back at her. Small, beady red eyes. The mass swells like it's breathing and the eyes blink at her.

_hello_

Vivienne reaches for the mass watching her, tries to claw at it, to tear it off, but it feels like invisible hands are holding her back.

"What is... What..."

_you know you said it you said our name you know who this one is_

"I don't..."

_remember when we were in ice you had names for us remember_

_"It's the largest superspecies ever discovered."_

_Emma looks at her nervously. "How big?"_

_Vivienne keeps watching the monitor, as though the dragon will move if she looks away. "We're estimating more than one hundred and fifty meters - over five hundred feet. It could probably cause hurricane level winds with those wings. As for Ichi, Ni, and San..."_

_"Who?"_

_"The heads." Vivienne points them out, ticks them off on her fingers. "Ichi, Ni, San. One, two, three."_

_"You named them?"_

_"Rick's not the only one who does that." _

_san you called this one san not this one's name but you call him san_

"Oh god, you HEARD that?" A familiar dread grows, twisting her insides. "Were you... was that you calling me that night?"

_yes! you remember! this one is glad! you know much you were so small but you are big now! you remember much sister!_

Vivienne swears her heart stops. "What... did you call me...?"

_sister you are sister this one is elder brother this one is so excited! so happy! _

She makes a noise, something between mirthless laughter and dry heaving. It's all too much. The smells of the chaos and carnage, tasting the gore, the screams of the dying, gunfire and ballistics punching into her, what's happened to her body - she ejects chunky ropes of vomit from her mouth, feels another wave of nausea upon seeing what might be human viscera among her sick. Flesh, organs, cloth. Don't look at it, don't look, don't think about it...

_you are sick you are hurting this one helps_

"Don't-!" she tries to protest, breaks into a series of retching coughs. Pain wracks through her body with every cough and she grows light-headed and heavy. She tries to catch her breath, but her chest burns. "Don't... please..."

_this one helps this one is elder brother this one helps sister_

"Not your sister!" Vivienne would have said more if her insides hadn't just done a somersault from smelling acid at the back of her throat. Despite her vision flaring white-hot from inflammation, she scrambles away from the pile of gore and vomit, prostrates herself in a desperate attempt to cool her body against the chilled floor.

For some reason she's aware of a sense of confusion, but doesn't think it came from her. Was that _its_ feelings just now?

_don't understand_

"Neither do I!" she manages to choke out. "Why- _urkkh!_ Why are you doing this?"

_eldest brother wanted this eldest brother hated you for containing us wanted to punish you make you one of us but this one doesn't hate you this one likes you never had a sister this one protected you when deep one cut off our head protected you from the green glow_

"Wait, wait! I never contained you! You were frozen long before I found you - before I was ever born!"

_you built metal cages and brought your kind to the ice you feared us but you stayed close elder brother doesn't like you eldest brother hates you for it you remind this one of bone singers they came to the ice too long long long time ago thought they could contain us too came to us with bone and feather and fur and little things tools and weapons they prayed but it wasn't to their gods no the bone singers prayed we stay in ice the bone singers prayed long night would last forever the long night lasted long time very long and then you came you smell like bone singers you have bone singer blood you did not pray but you carry the deep one in your heart like a god_

She can't think. None of this is processing. Her eyes are welling up again and she's so scared and confused - none of this makes sense... pain flares again when she curls into a ball. She wants to make herself small and disappear. Vivienne knows by now this is no dream, this is truly happening, but still wishes she could wake up. She wants the hurt to fade away when she falls asleep... and hopefully she'll never wake up.

When she speaks next she sounds as small as she wants to be.

"Why didn't you just kill me?"

There's a pause.

_not..._

_not what eldest brother wanted_

Vivienne winces and cries a little when the center head and its damned leering face flashes behind her eyelids; now she's afraid of closing them.

"I don't care about him." Which is a lie. It feels like she's going insane, the fact that all this is because that monster felt vindictive about her - she's nothing compared to the Dragon. She was an ant before a giant. "Why are YOU doing this? You? The one I'm talking to?"

It doesn't answer.

* * *

> **<A. Jonah, interview with Subject G, **██**-**██**-2020>**
> 
> [Security footage, containment chamber. Subject G lies curled up on the floor. Jonah enters the chamber followed by his men. Lights turn on; Subject G flinches and shields its face from the lights, whining.]
> 
> **Jonah:** Don't you look gorgeous.
> 
> **Subject G:** (Groaning. Muffled pops.)
> 
> **Jonah:** That can't be comfortable. Why don't you sit up and we can have a chat? I hear you can still talk.
> 
> **Subject G:** (Wet gurgling. Indistinct response.)
> 
> **Jonah:** Perhaps a test will clear out those pipes. Tell me your name.
> 
> **Subject G:** (Rattling vocalizations.) ...vvvvvvnnnnnn... ghhhrmmm... name... is... (Shift in tone.) _Ghi... dorrrrrrh..._ (Voice reverts to softer tone, accent.) Name is... Vvvviviennnne...
> 
> [Subject G trails off, coughing. Pained noises.]
> 
> **Jonah:** Tell me your age.
> 
> [Subject G holds up a shaking hand. Raises four digits, lowers them, raises three digits.]
> 
> **Jonah:** A vocal response, please.
> 
> **Subject G:** ...fffffurrr... t... tch... ffffour... forty... three.
> 
> [Subject G raises its head, studies Jonah.]
> 
> **Subject G:** ...you... YOU!
> 
> [Subject G rises to its feet and approaches on all fours. A blue containment field flares on and bars the path. Subject G flinches and looks around, perhaps seeking a gap or structural weak point. Brings a hand up to touch the field, and yowls in pain when the field zaps its hand.]
> 
> **Jonah:** Apologies, but we can't have a newborn Titan wandering around. Honestly, I'm surprised this thing even works, but it seems effective enough. That and the weapons, though you certainly soaked up those rounds like a sponge.
> 
> **Travis:** Hell of a face lift from Charlie G.
> 
> **Subject G:** Madison... where...?
> 
> **Jonah:** Not here. Last I checked she tasered one of my men and marched into Boston with the ORCA. Whether she or Emma survived the battle that leveled the place, I don't care. Godzilla saved the day, as usual. I'm sure you'd be pleased about that, considering you and Serizawa worship the ground he walks on.
> 
> **Subject G:** Sensei. Where is... here?
> 
> **Jonah:** That's not your concern.
> 
> [Subject G turns its head as if listening to something. Reaches for the barrier again.]
> 
> **Jonah:** I told you, it won't—
> 
> **Subject G:** _Quiet._
> 
> [Subject G touches the barrier again but maintains contact despite clearly experiencing pain. This continues until Subject G's hand begins to visibly smoke. Sparks fly and Subject G finally recoils with a screech, clutching the wrist of its scorched hand.]
> 
> **Subject G:** God! You... said that would... work! (Vocal change, no accent.) _Storm inside. But - not there. Why?_ (Vocal change; accent.) How should I know?! (No accent.) _Shhhh, go back go back go back go back._
> 
> **Travis: **This thing's fucking nuts.
> 
> **Jonah:** As entertaining as this is, I'd rather you didn't waste our time trying to break out of here like this is some cheap-jack Alcatraz. We need to set some ground rules for the duration of your stay. First, we've contracted some hired help to clean up after you - I see you've already started without them. The containment field will be down during these periods, but the cleaners will be escorted by armed guards, and they will not hesitate to open fire if you so much as look at them the wrong way. Second, you are to comply with any and all tests we will be performing, or you will be fired upon. I know you're small now, but we are going to regularly upgrade our security measures as soon as you show any growing immunity to our weaponry.
> 
> [Jonah walks away, exits field of view.]
> 
> **Jonah:** Oh, and don't bother hoping for a rescue. As far as the world at large is concerned, Dr. Vivienne Graham is dead. And the second any of our help develops any bleeding heart tendencies, they will be terminated on the spot. You don't want any more deaths on your conscience, do you?
> 
> [No response. Subject G looks down.]
> 
> **Jonah:** Good. Enjoy your stay.
> 
> **Subject G:** (No accent.) _Can't contain us._
> 
> **<End recording>**

* * *

something is wrong 

she is hurting everything hurts he feels the hurt why does it hurt he did everything he did as eldest brother said so why does everything hurt why doesn't she have the storm inside he should have given her the storm she should have the storm why doesn't she have the storm they would not still be here if she had the storm she would not be frightened by the little ones and their toys

not her fault she did nothing wrong sister is scared and confused and hurting he doesn't mean to hurt and scare and confuse but he is confused too he must have done something wrong he always does something wrong even when he does something right he ruins it stupid so stupid he has to make it right he will make it right he likes her he wants her to be strong and beautiful and perfect she doesn't feel beautiful or strong or perfect she feels ugly and sick and weak

why didn't you just kill me she said why would she say that he did as eldest brother said he doesn't want to kill her he likes her he wants her to like him

she is scared of eldest brother maybe hates eldest brother he hopes she doesn't hate him

make it right he has to make it right and get them out

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Vivienne recalling the words of a Philippine miner suffering from radiation poisoning comes from the 2014 Godzilla novelization.  
-  
ᛒ - Berkana. “Birch (tree).” The eighteenth rune. It represents birth and growth, the beginning of a cycle, but also the possibility of stagnation. The birch is the first tree to grow after the ice melts.


	3. Naudhiz

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For those curious about what the current Vivienne/San hybrid sounds like when they talk, have another YouTube video to get an idea, especially around 2:35. Headphones strongly recommended.  
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-vdHpvoUJE

ᚾ

_"We exist together now, two corpses in one grave..." _

* * *

The dreams she had in Outpost 32 were nothing compared to this.

She’s in a museum.

Vivienne recognizes it from when she was around Madison's age; a school field trip to the Natural History Museum in London. It's her favorite childhood memory. It had felt like the trip was ending too soon for her, so she stealthily separated from the group to properly explore alone. It was so exciting, like going on an adventure! That's what she wanted to grow up to be, like Indiana Jones, only she'd be an adventuring paleontologist instead of an archaeologist. Her passion for dinosaurs went above and beyond a child's fascination or obsession, as her frantic mother discovered after rushing to the museum and finding her sound asleep at the foot of a brontosaurus skeleton.

The place is completely devoid of life now. No security. No visitors or tour guides. No starstruck children like she was. No lights from outside the windows, not from street lamps, the stars, the moon, not even the sun. Nothing. Like this is all that's left of the world and she's the last human being. But she feels right at home here with the bones and fossils. The skeletons are talking to her and that doesn't seem strange at all.

"How did you get here?" the tyrannosaurus asks. He's always been one of her favorites. She shrugs. "Doesn't matter. Remember how you used to play dinosaurs with the other kids' army men? Wasn't that a grand time?"

"I remember."

"There's army men coming now. What do you say we go play with them? For old time's sake?"

"The dinosaur always wins," she says and climbs onto his back. The army men don't stand a chance. Vivienne points out their targets with a spear and the tyrannosaurus knocks them aside with great swings of his head and tail, crushes them under his feet, crunches them between his mighty jaws. There's a clap on her back and Vivienne turns to see herself sitting behind her like a twin she never knew she had. Other Vivienne is bleeding from her left side, sharp teeth piercing through her cheeks and horns sprouting from her head.

_sister your flank is open_ Other Vivienne says and it's in San's voice. _they've already come you left yourself wide open_

The floor cracks open and corpses latch around the tyrannosaurus' legs and tail like vines, dragging him down. San takes Vivienne and they jump off the great saurian's back just in time for her to see him turn into Godzilla plummeting into the yawning chasm. Vivienne wants to help him but San pulls her back.

"He's my favorite," Vivienne protests.

_should have watched his back then_

The corpses slither up from the hole and surround them. San looks at her expectantly and she looks at the spear.

_why won't you use the storm_

"I don't know how. I don't even have a storm."

_how do you know to use that_

"I don't know."

_you will know it's in your bones it's in your soul the head is the seat of the soul_

The dead are closing in and San encourages her to fight so she skewers one with her spear, only to look up and see the guard who listened to Ghidorah. Langley, she remembers, his name is Langley, and she just ran him through. Now why did she do that? She doesn't even know how to fight. Langley tries to talk, but his head and throat are full of holes from gunshots, so all that comes out are wet gurgling and gulping sounds. Vivienne looks around and the dead are all people she knows, from Outpost 32 to Janjira. One of Janjira's containment crewman, Yukimura, whose insides where turned to pulp by the MUTO, is vomiting and leaking from every orifice and moves like he's boneless. Little Andrew Russell's mangled, crushed body drags itself forward. Soldiers from G-Team come up turned to ash, like the reanimated husks of Pompeii. She knows all of them and they are all screaming at her.

"Where were you, Dr. Graham?"

"You said you would be there to help us!"

"You left us to die!"

"Why didn't you stay with us?"

"You promised we would go home and see our families!"

"YOU PROMISED!"

"You promised I'd see them again," Mark whispers.

The Philippine miners shuffle blindly, rasping at her in Tagalog, _“Demon! Demon!”_ The roof breaks off and the sky is a swirling cauldron of eldritch power, sickly clouds, and the laughter of bloodthirsty dragons. The floor collapses under her feet and she sinks into Cocytus itself. San doesn't look quite like Vivienne anymore when he wraps his coils and wings around her and everything explodes in a green light.

_we have listened waited dreamed through ice and rock and time_

* * *

Vivienne snaps awake into a darkened chamber, dimly illuminated by the blue containment barrier. Part of her had been hoping she'd wake up in the Argo's medical wing, or at her room in Castle Bravo. She just sighs and drops her throbbing head back down to the floor.

_awake you are awake you were dreaming_

God, what a thing to wake up to; her stomach churns and shudders roll up her spine hearing that stilted animal voice echo in her head and yet not in her head - how the hell does that even make sense?

"Were you sleeping?"

_awake never sleep must keep watch for sister_

Could it please stop calling her that? Vivienne idly traces the clawed tips of her fingers down her body, trying to examine the extent of what that thing has done to her. Breasts are gone, nothing in their place but a skeletal torso. The fresh keloids replacing her wounds have calcified into bone. She tries stretching and is met with searing pain from skin and muscle trying to move with the new, inflexible bone tissue and being pulled taught.

_hurts it hurts something is wrong something went wrong_

"What were you even trying to do?!"

_make you stronger you can heal like this one regrow regenerate but something is wrong something went wrong all wrong_

So Ghidorah has - had? - a regenerating factor? Brilliant. She doesn't want to know what it would cost to put it down, let alone what put it under ice in the first place. But at least Godzilla was victorious, if Jonah's comment can be believed (and she doesn't trust that old bastard for a second).

"So if your... what, your brothers? If they're beaten and dead, what now?"

A pause.

_this one didn't know they were dead_

"How do you not know? Weren't your minds connected?"

_the link was severed by the deep one he cut off our head shameful defeat the worst kind of defeat the link was cut and then the green glow this one doesn't know what happened after_

It keeps mentioning this green glow. Could Mothra have achieved her imago form and arrived to battle alongside Godzilla?

_no not the life bringer that one is life and rebirth the green glow is death it killed many many little things nearly killed you nearly killed the deep one_

Vivienne freezes up at this news.

"I... beg... your _fucking_ pardon?" 

Obviously Godzilla survived it, but unlike that nuke the U.S. was planning to kill him and the MUTOs with, this one could have done irreversible damage. It can't have been another nuclear warhead. Was it tested in a controlled environment? She doubts it; something like this must come with all manner of ethical questions attached. Did anyone stop and consider the environmental or economic effects such a thing could have, and was it detonated in a populated area? How would it react to its surroundings? Her mind swirls with possibilities, the humanitarian and political nightmares that could make the fallout of 2014's events look like a Sunday picnic. And who in god's name would approve of—

_Stenz._

Vivienne is not violent or vindictive by nature, but... she doesn't know what she'd do to him if they ever met again. Rick Stanton and his penchant for nicknames had affectionately dubbed the man "FUCKING" Stenz, and she's always been inclined to agree with him, albeit privately. Who else would think to develop such a thing? Who else would be so desperate to kill something he can't wrap his head around? Who else wouldn't accept the Titans for what they are, or the possibilities they provide?

If Vivienne were still a human, she...

If she were still human...

What's happening in the world? If a Titan-killing weapon can be developed, what does that mean for humanity and the Titans? The idea of coexistence and balance that she and Serizawa so strongly believe in? Vivienne's thoughts turn to friends and family. Is Madison safe? Jonah implied that Boston was completely destroyed in a battle between Godzilla and Ghidorah. Did Emma use the ORCA again? Were any other Titans awakened? What about Dr. Serizawa, Ilene and Ling, Rick, Sam, Colonel Foster, or G-Team? Her mother back home in England? Oh god, her _mother..._

"I have to get out of here."

_yes we do we want out but many obstacles many little ones with toys that hurt you_

Vivienne rubs the spot where she'd taken an anti-tank round to the face. Of course it would call something like that a toy. Her eyes fall on the blue barrier.

"You said there was a storm inside of us, that we could use it to break free. Why didn't that work?"

_...don't know_

Well, damn it.

_but this one needs you to need this one what is word don't know the word need you to need this one what is word_

"Trust?"

_trust yes trust need you to trust this one _

Her knee-jerk reaction would be to laugh. Trust a part of Ghidorah? After all it's done to her? After what it must have done to the world? She doesn't laugh, though, held back by a feeling of trepidation that isn't hers. That creature growing from her back like some cancerous, assimilated conjoined twin is asking her to trust it - and seems to be anticipating such a reaction. It's almost... nervous to ask.

She recalls something Colonel Foster told her; it'd been after Mark had stormed out of the briefing room all but demanding Godzilla's head on a platter. How circumstances may force you into the company of someone you don't like, or had a falling out with - you might even hate each other - but each needs the other to cooperate so they can work together and achieve a shared goal. A mutual need.

"I don't trust you."

No response. Something deflates inside her - it's that creature's feelings.

"But I _do_ need your help, and you need mine. Am I right?"

_yes_

"Okay. Let's find a way to get out of here."

_yes together we will get out together this one will fix this this one promises_

Guilt lances through her gut and pieces of that nightmare flash before her eyes. Vivienne clenches her fists, ignores how the clawed tips stab into her palms.

"You shouldn't make promises if you don't know you can keep them."

_this one promises sister promises bone singer_

Forget it. She studies the barrier. A thought occurs to her and she shuffles to the nearest wall. Jonah had expressed some surprise it was functional, and looking at it now... yes, now she remembers. This is a much earlier version of Monarch's current containment fields, but even the latest models can be bypassed. This facility couldn't be one of Monarch's old bunkers. Perhaps an older, abandoned outpost? It would have to be. Looking around, the walls and corners look as if they haven't been properly maintained in quite some time. One thing at a time - first, the barrier.

"Hey." What did she call it again? She can't keep calling it things like 'creature'. "San? We should keep an eye on this. I think this model emits the barrier at certain points in the walls and floor, maybe even the ceiling. But it can't be kept on forever. We'll be able to see anything when the cleaners come in and the barrier shuts off."

_yes this one watches this one listens as he did for brothers this one does for you but what then with no storm inside we cannot take power from the barrier_

"You can do that? Like how the Titans can grow stronger through radiation?"

_yes brothers and this one can take power from constructs dead things and living things yes it makes us stronger_

Right. Without this 'storm' San keeps talking about, their options are limited. Jonah's armaments don't seem capable of killing them, but they can still do enough damage to incapacitate them. Vivienne covers her mouth, thinking. Until they can figure out how the storm works, maybe their best bet for now is to just wait things out, bide their time and conserve their strength. San makes a vaguely agreeable sound from his hunch.

* * *

**<Security footage, containment chamber, **██**-**██**-2020>**

8:00:00 am: Subject G appears to be sleeping. 

8:01:09 am: Cleaning crew enters containment chamber accompanied by armed escorts. Several cleaners express revulsion and horror at the sight of Subject G.

8:02:13 am: Cleanup begins.

8:07:51 am: Subject G stirs, becoming agitated. One cleaner becomes curious and approaches. Subject G wakes up and cleaner recoils, guards form a firing line.

8:09:06 am: Subject G seems confused at first. Shuffles away from guards and cleaners to far corner, sits in fetal position facing the wall. Vestigial head watches the cleaners and guards.

8:10:38 am: Cleanup finishes. Cleaner complains of the vestigial head watching him and (translated from Russian) "creeps him the fuck out".

8:10:50 am: Subject G requests food, startling the cleaning crew. Guard B-01 comments about "not eating the civvies". Cleaners grow agitated and hasten to leave containment, one cleaner snapping she doesn't want her children anywhere near "fucking Baba Yaga".

8:11:28 am: Cleaning crew exits containment. Guard B-04 █████████ asks what Subject G would like to eat, lists stereotypical British foods in Cockney accent. Subject G grows annoyed and responds that it will "have your mum".

8:12:04 am: Guard B-04 takes a shot at Subject G, which roars in irritation. Containment field turns on and guards exit.

**<End footage>**

**Addendum:** Guard B-04 █████████ is to be reprimanded for antagonizing Subject G during cleaning.

* * *

> **<Audio recording, surveillance, interview with Mariko [DATA EXPUNGED],** ██**-**██**-2020>**
> 
> **Foreword:** Dr. Mariko **[DATA EXPUNGED]** was assigned to Outpost 58 in the Tingua Preserve, Brazil, where she barely survived Titanus Behemoth's containment breach after sabotaging the security measures. She has been living off the grid since then. Colonel Jonah had made contact with her in the months during Subject G's gestation period, believing he needed someone with experience in observing Titans to provide greater biological insight.
> 
> **Jonah:** So glad to have you to join us. 
> 
> **Mariko:** I'm not joining you. I'm still Monarch.
> 
> **Jonah:** Of course you are. I'm sure the fact you're still listed as K.I.A. has nothing to do with your current situation.
> 
> **Mariko:** Sarcasm does you no credit. Emma was in the right - I'm proud of what I did.
> 
> **Jonah:** Proud to get your friends and allies killed?
> 
> **Mariko:** Proud to release a god from his prison. Are you going to keep antagonizing me, or is there a purpose to this?
> 
> **Jonah:** It's like I said before. We need an expert on Titan biology. None of us know as much as we should about our new subject.
> 
> **Mariko:** You... really have a new Titan? Here?
> 
> **Jonah:** A newborn. Would you like to meet her? It's about time for her to eat.
> 
> **Mariko:** (Nervous chuckle.) Well, as long as I'm not dessert... am I? I hope I'm not dessert.
> 
> **<Containment chamber, Subject G, video recording>**
> 
> [Lights are out. Jonah, Mariko, armed escorts, and a forklift carrying (4) four steel barrels (two containing water and two containing raw bovine carcasses) enter the chamber, doors closing behind them. Containment field is active. Wheezing is heard. Jonah addresses the source.]
> 
> **Jonah:** We have a new friend for you. She's going to be providing us with insights to keep you happy and healthy.
> 
> **Mariko:** Is that her? I can't see...
> 
> **Jonah:** Command, lights on.
> 
> [Lights activate, barrier shuts down. Mariko screams at the sight of Subject G, rousing it. Subject lies on the floor exhausted and dehydrated, wheezes.]
> 
> **Mariko:** What is that?! WHAT IS THAT?!
> 
> **Jonah:** Don't you recognize her?
> 
> **Mariko:** You sick monsters - is this a joke to you?!
> 
> **Subject G:** (Unintelligible.)
> 
> **Guard B-04** █████████**:** Wakey-wakey, Grammy, eggs and bacey.
> 
> **Jonah:** For god's sake, █████████, stop teasing her.
> 
> **Mariko:** Grammy?
> 
> [A long pause. Subject G tries to push itself up, speaks louder.]
> 
> **Subject G:** _...water... please..._
> 
> **Mariko:** Oh my god. Oh my god.
> 
> **Jonah:** Time to eat.
> 
> [Forklift lowers barrels beside subject and reverses. Panting, Subject G reaches inside one barrel. Realizing it contains water, begins to desperately drink from it.]
> 
> **Mariko:** What the _hell_ is this...?
> 
> **Jonah:** You really don't recognize her? Surprising. She has a very distinct profile.
> 
> **Mariko:** What are you talking about... (Watches subject closely. Backs away, realizing.) Oh god... no... the reports... Dr. Graham...?
> 
> [Subject G pauses, looks up, tilts its head.]
> 
> **Subject G:** _Who...?_
> 
> **Mariko:** (Hushed.) What did they do to you?
> 
> **Jonah:** I wouldn't recommend getting friendly. She's already killed some of my men and eaten one. What's more, I doubt she'd be in a friendly mood, considering your definition of allegiance.
> 
> [Mariko protests. Subject G leans in and scrutinizes her.]
> 
> **Mariko:** ...I'm Dr. Mariko **[DATA EXPUNGED]**. I was... assigned to Outpost 58. We all heard about what happened at 32. Read the reports. It was so awful... but after everything else happened, I guess we sort of... forgot. I'm sorry.
> 
> **Subject G:** (No response.)
> 
> **Mariko:** But Dr. Russell... she broadcast her plans through our satellites. We heard everything. And, well. When Monster Zero woke up the Titans, I...
> 
> **Subject G:** Wait. What... was Emma's plan?
> 
> **>FFW>>**
> 
> [Mariko recounts Dr. Emma Russell's declaration. Subject G sits quietly, oddly calm, examining the contents of the remaining three barrels.]
> 
> **Mariko: ** I helped Behemoth escape. The Titans are gods. They don't belong in cages. We had no right to lock them away from a world that's rightfully theirs. I know you wouldn't agree with her actions, but I did - I still do. Emma was right.
> 
> **Subject G: **(Growls.) How... many.
> 
> **Mariko:** W-what?
> 
> **Subject G:** How many... died... when you...
> 
> **Mariko:** Everyone.
> 
> **Subject G:** Do you... remember... their names?
> 
> **Mariko:** I... there was Erik, and...
> 
> **Subject G:** Outpost 32. Langley. Santiago. Lagunov. Kinnaird. Dahlman. Metharom. Tran. Hirschel. Singh. McCraw. Benti. Del Rio. Kurosawa. I remember. They were... my _friends._ Had families. Memories. Hopes. Now... they have _none._
> 
> **Mariko:** They died for the greater good. Humans have made sacrifices to gods - material offerings, animals, even human lives—
> 
> **Subject G:** THEY WERE_ MURDERED! _BY_ HIM _AND_ HIS!_
> 
> [Mariko flinches, guards raise weapons. Subject stands as tall as bodily mutations will allow, bares teeth in a snarl, fingers clawing. Mariko shrinks away.]
> 
> **Subject G:** Sacrifice... has _purpose._ This? Senseless. Unnecessary. _Wasted. _Do you... even_ care?_
> 
> [The chamber falls silent. Mariko stares at her feet. Subject G makes a low noise, turns away.]
> 
> **Subject G:** Guess not.
> 
> **<End recording>**

* * *

sister is angry she is very angry but she does not thrash and bite no she shows her teeth like elder brother used to good this is good elder brother always said anger is a tool must not let it consume like a disease sister is wise sister learns fast but she is sad she remembers many names remembers many dead she feels responsible for the dead he doesn't understand she didn't kill them why would she feel responsible

the little ones have gone they leave food and water sister is so thirsty she drinks good very good she is hungry too so very hungry but she doesn't eat why won't she eat must eat she tries but feels sick he can feel her sick bubbling inside the meat reminds her of little ones they killed and ate before why does that bother her the little ones have meat they contain us but little ones are prey are food why won't she _eat_

they come back in their strange garb that hides their faces they bring things full of the power that fuels us fuels the old gods the ones sister calls titans good that will help us but it is not food it is not sustenance she _needs to eat_

* * *

**<M. [DATA EXPUNGED], Medical Report G-01, video recording, **██****-****██****-2020**>**

[Recording begins in the middle of Mariko ranting to herself. She is badly disfigured from the aftermath of Behemoth's containment breach.]

\--like a freakshow, not to mention how they treat _her_...

[Takes a breath, slicks back her partially shaved hair.]

Okay. Okay. To start with, let's recap with what they've decided to share with me. Dr. Graham— excuse me, _Subject G—_ has a rapid regenerative factor several times faster than what Godzilla has demonstrated. Subject was reported to have suffered at least three instances of cardiac arrest during the gestation period inside Monster Zero's head, most likely due to the sudden growth spurts and Subject's organs - at the time - being unable to keep up with the rapid changes. Organs were already being grown to fit the new body shape, but at some point after the third heart attack subject has developed a secondary heart, what looks like a third lung, a "pre-" stomach probably meant to filter out toxins in food, and a vestigial head at the spine containing fully functioning eyes and brain. In addition to these are glands of indeterminate function.

Subject's skin still has raw red patches from radiation burns but these are slowly healing into a darkened leathery hide. Time will tell if it will develop bulletproof scales. Skin and exposed bone spurs possess very few traces of gold, not enough to conduct electricity like Monster Zero did.

Unfortunately, something in the regenerating factor has caused a mutation resulting in what is, frankly, the most horrifying case of fibrodisplasia ossificans progressiva I've ever seen. It seems that after the latest regeneration, regrown muscle has hardened into new bone tissue and protrudes from the skin. The condition renders movement both difficult and painful, as subject can neither fully bend nor fully straighten some limbs without potentially breaking her own bones. It looks excruciating, and from the surveillance footage shows, it is. Christ, that _screaming_...

[Shudders. Runs hands down face, sighs.]

As of this recording, subject is approximately 35 or 40 feet long from head to tail, roughly the same as an average Skullcrawler. She's strong enough to... _ugh_, rip people apart, and teeth - of which she has grown an outer layer of sharp teeth meant to puncture flesh like a cat or snake - are evidently able to... well, do just that. These mercs were all too happy to show me what happened.

[A pause. Mariko drinks from a cup, glances over her shoulder.]

Mentally speaking, she's... well, speaking. You can barely recognizes it's her talking, though. It's like she has to force her vocal chords to work, and Sergeant Travis has reported her sometimes talking to herself in a different voice. They're saying it's her and the vestigial head communicating. I haven't seen it for myself, but... maybe.

They're also saying she displays typical symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, the first clue being the day she "hatched" and entered a violently agitated state, triggered by the sight of Monster Zero's head. Subject has become insomniac, and when she does sleep experiences nightmares. Just activating the containment field makes her jump. I've seen that look in her eyes. That haunted look, like she's staring right through me, at something only she can see. She's so quiet most of the time, but her eyes are _howling_.

I don't know what these people want me to do to her, or _what_ they want to do to begin with. They won't tell me. What's more...

[Mariko lifts a leg into view, shows a security collar around her ankle.]

This is to ensure my "Titan sympathizer tendencies" don't get in the way of things. I asked them if this was really necessary and they offered me a shock collar instead. I went with this. "Titan sympathizer tendencies." Am I the only one who can see the fucking sunrise around here? I look at the Titans and I see gods. _Her_, though... I don't know what to think.

Dr. Graham never wanted to talk about Monster Zero, like she was scared of him. I always thought that strange coming from her. She loved the Titans. She understood how essential they are to us and the world. But the only thing I heard her describe Monster Zero as was... the Devil.

Looking at what's happened to her, I don't think I can argue against that.

**<End recording>**

* * *

Vivienne knows she needs to eat before the meat goes sour. But every time she tries it just reminds her of the taste of... and she feels nauseous all over again.

This is ridiculous. It's not human flesh. It's just cow. It's goddamned _steak._ She's not even vegan, or a vegetarian. It wouldn't taste the same as... cannibals say that human meat is like pork. If she'd thought that was just some morbid 'tastes like chicken' hyperbole, she knows better now. Vivienne hopes they don't bring in pig next time, or else she really will get sick again.

But she's starving, and food is right. Damn. _There._

Her stomach cramps weakly. Isn't one's body supposed to start digesting itself at some point in situations like this? Regardless of whether she can regenerate anything if that's the case, she needs to get over herself and _eat_.

So hungry.

_must eat_

Her thoughts turn to Serizawa. Recalls the lines on his tired face, the gray hairs in his beard, the way he holds his father's watch. For a moment she feels lighter, her muscles forming a smile. How many times has she had to remind him to take a break from work and get some food? She remembers something from when she first joined Monarch; how she'd fallen asleep at her new desk taking in all the knowledge she could and woke up with a blanket covering her. Serizawa had given her a knowing look, the first of what felt like the rare smiles he would reserve for her, and she felt something stir in her heart.

Did she ever tell him...?

Vivienne staggers to the barrels.

She stares at the raw red flesh. Like it came straight out of a butcher's freezer. Just imagine it smoking on a grill, a burger patty. Her mouth waters. Fresh, juicy meat. With some effort she pulls the carcass out of its barrel - one of her arms is stiff and is difficult to fully bend or straighten.

Vivienne takes a breath. Leans in, opens her mouth. Her new teeth pierce the meat. Tastes its juices on her tongue. Eyes water. Pull back with a chunk in her mouth, chew.

Swallow.

Despite the shivers rolling up and down her body, San praises her in taking this first step. She licks what's left of her torn lips and takes another bite. They're going to grow stronger. Heal this twisted body, escape this wretched place.

She's going to see Serizawa again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Mariko comes from the KOTM novelization where she indeed did agree with Emma and helped Behemoth escape from Outpost 58. When told she's "killed [them] all" in doing so, all she says is "Probably."  
-  
ᚾ - Naudhiz. “Need.” The tenth rune. It represents the principle of necessity; ordeals and hindrances, but also that which can overcome the current difficulties.


	4. Eihwaz

ᛇ

_"Ear byþ egle eorla gehƿylcun,_  
_ðonn[e] fæstlice flæsc onginneþ,_  
_hraƿ colian, hrusan ceosan,_  
_blac to gebeddan; bleda gedreosaþ,_  
_ƿynna geƿitaþ, ƿera gesƿicaþ."_

_“The grave is horrible to every knight_  
_when the corpse quickly begins to cool_  
_ and is laid in the bosom of the dark earth_  
_ Prosperity declines; happiness passes away_  
_ and covenants are broken.”_

—The Anglo-Saxon Rune Poem

* * *

serizawa

se-ri-za-wa

sister likes this word this name she feels light and happy she thinks of a man with tan skin and whiskers and tired eyes she is happy to think of the man named serizawa she also calls him sensei this one doesn't know what the word means but thinks it must be special like how this one calls sister bone singer he wishes he could make sister feel light and happy

he envies the man named serizawa

* * *

**<A. Jonah, audio recording, **██****-****██**-2020>**

Travis brought up an interesting thought regarding Subject G1. It certainly would explain quite a few things. And among the old goodies we found in the armory was a decent supply of gas bombs and grenades. Looks like they go back to the first World War. We don't know if they're chlorine gas or mustard gas.

Unfortunately I won't be available to oversee the first few tests we have planned for Subject G. I have additional plans with our big prize in the basement, and I need to ensure my buyers are supplied, so tests will be overseen by ██████ and Dr. **[DATA EXPUNGED]**. Effective immediately, only myself and a select few will be permitted to enter the ██████████████. Last thing I need is **[DATA EXPUNGED]** finding out what she doesn't need to know and having a repeat of Outpost 58.

So, with Subject G, their first order of business is to find out what kind of bombs we have and if subject has inherited any certain immunities.

**<End recording>**

* * *

How long has it been? A day? Two days, three? One barrel of meat is finished and she's trying to make the water last. Once that's done, if human limitations still apply, she has about three days before dehydration sets in again. But there's nothing to indicate the passage of time. At some point she becomes aware of her own heartbeat. That's always struck her as disconcerting on its own, but she feels and hears four beats instead of the usual two. San must have somehow grown her a second heart. He probably knows all about what went on during that time in _don't think about it_

She's actually grateful for San's presence. He's very chatty considering the lack of a mouth, and if nothing else it helps distract her from delving into traumatic memories. San is also much more perceptive than she'd thought. The first time the barrier had shut down a sort of muffled noise enters her mind.

_clever clever clever there are holes all over left and right up and down they open up and then the barrier comes up but the barrier is down now and the holes are closed_

And Vivienne has to give it to whoever designed this version of the containment field; that _is_ clever. Whether the barrier is on or off, the conduits emitting it are protected. Maybe, if they time it right, they can get a claw in and damage one of the conduits...

Just now she's snapped back to the present by the **CRACK-hmm** of the barrier powering down, hearts leap into her throat at how sudden and _loud_ that noise is. The doors are opening, cleaners and escorts filing in. It still feels strange; there's nothing to see, but she can't help feeling exposed and vulnerable like this. It's just muscle memory, or an instinctive reflex to hide herself in any way, especially around men with guns.

_what are you doing they are not hurting you no need to be afraid_

_I'm not afraid. Not really._ She keeps her responses mental. _It just feels strange._ She takes a drink from the steel water barrel. That one guard - the one who keeps pestering her - is trying to get her attention.

_that one he keeps talking to you he keeps making you angry why does he want to make you angry_

_He just wants the attention. We're not giving him any. God, will he knock it off? Such a pain in the hole._

_so eat him_

She should expect such a response but is still completely aghast at the idea. It makes her stomach turn - and after eating an entire raw cow, which she might regret soon. 

_I'm not eating anyone!_

_why not why does it bother bone singer so much you did it before why does it make you feel sick the little ones are prey are food_

_They're PEOPLE!_

_but they hurt you they frighten you don't have to eat them maybe just kill them and they will stop making you angry they will be too afraid of you_

That one guard keeps taunting her. What is his problem? Just leave her alone, please...

_That doesn't make it any better! I'm nothing like you or your brothers! I'm_ not_ a killer!_

_maybe not you but maybe your ancestors the bone singers who came before maybe they killed and ate to consume the enemy's power this one and brothers do the same_

_No, you don't understand - I don't WANT to hurt or kill anyone!_

_what about that one he keeps talking to you keeps laughing at you he makes you angry_

San's wrong. She's not angry, she's just frustrated. That guard is just some juvenile thug, no better than one of those boys in high school trying to get a rise out of her.

_if we kill him he will stop quick and easy barrier is down all we have to do is reach out_

_Remember the other guards? The ones with orders to shoot if we pull a stunt like that?_

_their toys can't kill us_

_That's not the point! It doesn't matter how many times you say it. I am_ not a killer._ This discussion is over._

San falls quiet. The universe must have a sense of humor, because at that moment she catches the tail end of that guard's latest heckling.

"...that Madison kid..."

What? What about Madison? Vivienne hazards turning her head to look at the guard. The cleaners stiffen up, like they just walked into a bear's dwelling. The guard is pleased to finally have her attention, though.

"Yeah, Madison," he says in the most aggravatingly smug tone. "Tough talk and busting out of a bunker, that's cool and all. But it didn't stop her from crying like a baby when she got the bad news." Here he adopts a high-pitched screech in a stereotypical little girl voice. "'Auntie Viv! Auntie Viv! I wish she was my mom!' Like, really? Who wants the idiot who got eaten alive to be their mom?"

For god's sake.

She curls her torn lips up into a snarl and turns away, tries to ignore her pulse spiking at his jeers. Eaten alive like an idiot? Maybe _he_ should try running on ice and snow after his legs have turned to jelly from the most nerve-wracking Osprey ride in the world; after going out of his way to lift debris off a friend pinning them down all the while that Osprey could be crushed underfoot by a Titan or fall into a crevasse never to be seen again; after all that, maybe _he_ can try fleeing for his life from death incarnate and see how _funny_ he thinks getting eaten alive is then.

See how _fucking hilarious_ it is when the slightest noise puts her on edge, when she doesn't know how long she's been in this room with nothing but cracks and grime and a voice in her head, hearing heartbeats in her ears _all the time_, can't even scratch an itch without breaking a bone or pulling a muscle or ripping her skin off, or being afraid of sleeping in case she closes her eyes and sees Ghidorah lunging_—_

_no don't think about it don't think about it don't think come back come back come back_

Between San and the guard, Vivienne forces herself to drown them out.

Phanerozoic Eon. Cenozoic Era. Quaternary, Neogene, Paleogene. Mesozoic Era. Cretaceous, Jurassic, Triassic. Paleozoic Era. Permian, Carboniferous, Devonian...

* * *

bad thoughts

so many bad thoughts in sister's head she doesn't think them up they come from nowhere out of darkness and fear they mock her like that little male does

he doesn't like that male so noisy and pushy won't leave sister alone he hates that male he wishes he had a neck to stretch out and teeth to kill the male to chew and crunch and silence the male he is elder brother now he must protect sister until she can protect herself but he doesn't understand why won't she fight back is she afraid of their toys there is no need to be afraid they can't kill her they can't kill us or is she afraid of more pain that he can understand pain is scary but pain is temporary

he will find a way to stop the hurt kill the hurt yes make the hurt die he will fix this and sister will no longer hurt or be afraid he thinks he hopes she doesn't hate him he is relieved she does not trust him but she needs him and he needs her she feels angry sometimes but doesn't roar or bite like brothers he is so grateful she is

she is...

he doesn't know the word but she is _she is_ he likes her for it she is what brothers were not she_ is_

* * *

When the door opens again, everyone's wearing hazmat suits, but the usually clear helmets are obscuring the faces. While Mariko begins taking scans of her vitals, Vivienne squints; it's not the visors, but something worn inside the helmets...

...gas masks? Surely the suits offer sufficient protection. Why on Earth...?

"How are you feeling today?" Mariko asks. Her voice sounds strange coming from under two layers of protection.

Vivienne manages a shrug. She's slowly acclimating to the constant pains.

_what are they doing what are they doing don't like this bad feeling_

_It must be for a test. We should be fine._

"We, uh..." Mariko trails off, tries again. "We're going to start our first test today. To find out the extent of your regenerative properties, test a certain hypothesis."

_See? It's just a test._

_no no no bad feeling very bad feeling they want to hurt you_

Vivienne pauses. Why would San be so anxious all of a sudden? Jonah may be a cruel, miserable old man, but Mariko worked with Monarch. Vivienne shares the woman's reverence towards the Titans, and she doesn't seem the type to allow any harmful tests to be conducted without putting up a fight. Then again, the suits are much older like everything else here, and they might be damaged or compromised in some way, so perhaps the gas masks are just a precaution...? It still seems strange.

"Let's get this over with, doc," one of the others shouts.

Mariko stammers out a phrase before jogging back to the entrance. What the-?

_what did she say what did she say_

_She... she said she's sorry. Why—_

"Fire in the hole!"

A volley of round objects are chucked their way, some rolling till they click against her. She takes a step back. Grenades. Very old grenades, but they can't do much of anything to her...

She instinctively gasps when gas hisses out, feels it getting sucked into her lungs - and that's when the smell hits her.

Pepper and pineapple.

* * *

**<Surveillance footage, containment chamber, Test G-01,** ██**-**██**-2020>**

10:00:00 am: Dr. Mariko **[DATA EXPUNGED]** and ██████ with armed escorts enter containment chamber.

10:01:23 am: Dr. **[DATA EXPUNGED]** exchanges pleasantries with Subject G.

10:03:09 am: Test begins.

10:03:15 am: Chlorine gas grenades are thrown into containment chamber. Subject G seems startled but curious.

10:03:30 am: Gas is released from grenades and Subject G enters agitated emotional state.

10:04:02 am: Subject G attempts covering face but begins coughing violently.

10:05:12 am: Subject G begins coughing up blood. Vestigial head swells as if being pushed out by some force from the inside.

10:05:57 am: Vestigial head partially tears from spine, causing Subject G excruciating pain; Subject G emits screaming vocalizations. Vestigial head (heretofore referred to as Subject G-1a) has formed an articulated lower jaw still connected to the spine, begins vocalizing in stilted patterns similar to speech.

10:06:11 am: Subject G collapses, now coughing up what appears to be pieces of lungs. Patches of skin begin dissolving. Subject G-1a vocalizes louder, more insistent. (Note: The words "what," "do," and "her" are discernible; G-1a seems to be demanding, "What [did you] do [to] her?")

10:07:08 am: Subject G stops breathing, but appears to retain full consciousness. Regeneration begins. Subject G-1a continues to demand what has been done, repeats "kill you kill you kill you".

**<End log>**

**Postword:** As expected, the chlorine gas interacted with moisture in subject's lungs and formed hydrochloric acid, causing the dissolving of flesh. According to post-test scans, Subject G's third lung seems to act as a sort of "oxygen bladder" as theorized by Dr. **[DATA EXPUNGED]** while main lungs are shut down. Subject G-1a seems to be violently protective of Subject G, referring to it as "sister" and promising pain and death on all responsible for "hurting her".

* * *

> **<Video recording, **██-██****-2020**>******
> 
> [Security footage in command room above containment chamber. Jonah reviews the footage and notes with Mariko and ██████.]
> 
> **Mariko:** What the hell is wrong with you?!
> 
> ██████**:** Lots of things, probably. What're you complaining about now?
> 
> **Mariko:** The chlorine gas, you barbarian! If you want to reenact the Attack of the Dead Men, do it outside in the snow! What was the point of this?!
> 
> ██████**:** Couple of them. See if they still work, test if they have any effect on subject - which they do - et al. You know napalm could hurt Kong back in the 70's, right?
> 
> **Mariko:** Jesus Christ...
> 
> **Jonah:** Let's not forget, that vestigial head never did anything like this. Now we know there's a connection between them. A bond.
> 
> **Mariko:** Host and parasite?
> 
> **Jonah:** Brother and sister. It called her its sister. Now that is interesting. You know, I've always felt that chemical warfare only makes the enemy fight that much harder. Like the Attack of the Dead Men, as you mentioned, Doctor. There's something more... personal in a gas bomb over ballistics. A chest full of shrapnel from a fragmentation grenade? That can put a man down. But chuck a gas bomb in the middle of a squad that's come to consider one another their brothers, and they'll fight to their last dying breath.
> 
> ██████**:** You wanna test how far that brother-sister bond will go?
> 
> **Jonah:** In time. Let's suspend all testing with gases. Instead, take a leaf out of █████████'s book.
> 
> **<End recording>**

* * *

**<Mariko [DATA EXPUNGED], mobile recording 1>**

[Camera settles on Mariko’s face, barely visible in a dimly lit room. Video and audio quality implies an older mobile phone camera.]

Can’t record this on a terminal here – Jonah might have them bugged. Hell, he might even have this anklet bugged. I can’t use a smart phone either. I’m using an old-timey flip phone like I’m John Wick, or a drug dealer.

Some interesting stuff came up. Those mercs tossed these old notebooks at me like I’m an errand boy and said we don’t need this “old shit” – and yeah, it’s old. But one of the refugees from Moscow noticed the writing. These go back to the 20’s. I let them have the books because it’s better than them doing nothing when not working, or losing sleep making sure none of Jonah’s guys make like the Gestapo again. Next day the same guy comes up and says whatever notes haven’t faded away talk about legends and sightings of wild men.

Earliest and hardest to read writings talk about the Soviets sending out an expedition team to the Indigirka and Yana rivers to investigate Chuchunya sightings – basically either Bigfoot-type cryptids or a relic population of Neanderthals. They found a body.

**<End recording>**

* * *

> **<Incident Log****, **██**-**██**-2020>**
> 
> **Foreword:** Per Colonel Jonah's suggestion, ██████ is to attempt provoking an extreme emotional response from Subject G.
> 
> **<Begin log>**
> 
> [██████ has been attempting a rise out of Subject G for several minutes with no success.]
> 
> ██████**:** Jesus. Did Serizawa get the frigid bitch act from you?
> 
> [Beat. Subject G glares at ██████.]
> 
> ██████**:** Oh, did I touch a nerve? I never could figure out what the deal was with you two. Was he your sugar daddy? Your fuck buddy?
> 
> **Subject G:** (No response. Bares teeth.)
> 
> ██████**:** Is that how you got into Monarch? On your knees? Bet I coulda shown you a hell of a time. All eight inches.
> 
> [Subject G holds up a shaking hand. Clasps thumb between index and middle fingers, imitating a clitoris.]
> 
> **Subject G:** Mine’s bigger.
> 
> [The guards can be heard laughing.]
> 
> ██████**:** (Quiet chuckling.) Yeah, I figure.
> 
> [Beat.]
> 
> ██████**:** So, what was he to you? You guys were attached to the hip. Serizawa barely went anywhere without you. Now, if you guys weren’t all intimate-like, but you were clearly close...
> 
> **Subject G:** (Muffled noise. Turns around, shuffles to the corner.)
> 
> ██████**:** Oh wait, that’s right. A little birdie told me something interesting. You were an only child, right? Single mom? What about daddy?
> 
> [Subject G stops.]
> 
> ██████**:** I actually know what it’s like, growing up without a dad. Did kids at school pick on you for that? “My dad’s a fireman. My dad’s a policeman. What about your dad, Graham?” Did you have to deal with that?
> 
> [Subject G’s back is still facing ██████; G-1a snarls in warning. Fingers flex.]
> 
> ██████**: **And Susan Graham never remarried either. Must’ve gotten used to it, but you envied those kids, right? Threw yourself into studies and work ‘cause it was better than moping about a man you’ll never know. How old were you when you met Serizawa?
> 
> **Subject G: **(No response. Deep inhale.)
> 
> ██████**:** Don’t get me wrong, I’m legitimately curious here. I never got what you got. What was it like? Was it something that just built itself up over the years, or did you two just... click? Like you found the last missing pieces of a puzzle? When did you realize your true feelings? Did you... ever tell him?
> 
> **Subject G:** (Sudden, shuddering exhale.)
> 
> ██████**:** Pretty sure he has a kid somewhere. Maybe a wife too, unless they’re divorced or something. What do you think he’d say if you told him? Would he have felt the same? Now, we were tuning in to Monarch’s radio chatter back at Outpost 32, and we heard what happened. Maybe it’s just the reputation he had, but he didn’t sound that torn up about it.
> 
> **Subject G:** ...enough...
> 
> ██████**:** I mean, consider it. He already has a kid but nobody’s seen him go and visit him. I don’t care how busy he is. A _real_ father, who cares for and loves his kid, has to stop what he’s doing, and _visit his kid_. How do you know he actually cared about you?
> 
> **Subject G:** You... don’t know him...
> 
> ██████**:** Did you really think he loved you?
> 
> **Subject G:** _SHUT UP!_
> 
> [Subject G charges. Security opens fire as ██████ makes for the doors but they are swatted aside, Subject G slamming a hand down and catching ██████ in the leg with the tip of its claw. ██████ screams in agony as he's dragged back in, frantically unholsters his weapon.]
> 
> **Subject G:** _YOU DON'T KNOW HIM!_
> 
> [██████ fires and Subject G recoils violently, free hand shooting to its right eye, shrieking loud enough to distort audio feedback. Veins briefly pulse with light. Visual tearing. Subject's right eye is damaged and bleeding, but the left flares up with a red glow. ██████ screams again when Subject G grabs him fully by the body and proceeds to repeatedly thrash him against the floor. The guards resume fire, to little effect.]
> 
> **Guard B-04 **█████████**: **Jesus - holy _fuck_ \- subject is raging! SUBJECT IS RAGING_—_ (Sudden gargled screaming.)
> 
> **<End recording>**
> 
> **Postword:** ██████'s initial attempts were fruitless, however focusing on the personal life of Dr. Graham succeeded too well, especially when the topic of Serizawa was brought up. Between the antagonism and ██████ firing in self-defense or panic, Subject G entered what appeared to be a rage state. It is also theorized that the main and vestigial heads may have somehow "swapped personalities" during this state, based on how Subject G's beatings were intended to prolong ██████'s life as long as possible. As evidenced by the footage, the undamaged eye changed color and Subject's whole body language changed to resemble a rampaging chimpanzee more than a human. When in this state Subject G ignores most physical damage and even seems unaware that it has broken several of its own bones through movement alone. By the time additional defenses were set up to herd Subject G behind the containment barrier, very little of ██████ and the guards were left intact. In addition to anti-tank guns and .50 caliber turrets, a Humvee with equipped GAU-19 was required. Travis theorizes between six hundred and a thousand rounds were fired before Subject G could be contained, and it is now currently regenerating from extensive physical damage. 

* * *

> **<Video recording, security feed, **██**-**██**-2020>**
> 
> [Jonah, Travis, Tejada, and Mariko examine the footage.]
> 
> **Mariko:** Jesus... _Jesus..._
> 
> **Jonah:** ██████ really touched a nerve.
> 
> **Tejada:** “Touched a nerve?” Him and the others were turned into chunky salsa! Did you see the way she was _licking_ the gore? That back-hump Son of Eddie the Head fuckin' thing was in the pilot's seat. (Downs a drink.) Never thought she could actually get angry. Least not like that.
> 
> **Travis:** I hate to say, sir, but no way in hell am I going in there for an interview. Not after that.
> 
> **Tejada:** Yeah, not such a hot idea... imagine what she’d do if you told her Serizawa’s dead.
> 
> **Travis:** _I’d_ be dead.
> 
> **Mariko:** Wait. You mean she doesn't know?
> 
> **Travis:** How would she? She died long before he did.
> 
> **Mariko:** No, but - none of you told her? Why not?
> 
> **Jonah:** Because I gave the order not to. I've been thinking, you see. For a while we didn't know if she actually died at any point in the months since Antarctica, though I would be shocked if she didn't at least once. We didn't know if she would be of the same mind, or if Ghidorah simply reanimated her corpse into a flesh puppet. After the hatching, we do know she's of the same human mind and memories, and human minds are so... malleable. So open to suggestion, once they’re broken down. 
> 
> **Mariko:** ...what are you going to do to her?
> 
> **Jonah:** I won't be doing anything. You'll be the one breaking the bad news to her.
> 
> **Mariko:** What - but - why me? She doesn't trust me!
> 
> **Jonah:** You're still Monarch, aren't you? She's more likely to believe one of her own than any of us. And you'll have access to official documents if she doesn't believe you - news reports, articles, obituaries. I hear they gave him a hero's sendoff. However you do it, I don't care. Break her.
> 
> **<End recording>**

* * *

_they're coming_

She's ready when the barrier drops and the doors open. She and San know the game now. Vivienne arches her back like a cat, displaying San who growls hatefully at Mariko's approach. No armed guards accompany her; Jonah must not want to risk any more of his men getting killed. Good. She doesn't want to hurt anyone else. She doesn't know what happened, doesn't even know what possessed her to... all she knows is San took over for a time. Maybe that was his reaction to her protesting his suggestions, killing those men so she didn't have to.

Not that it matters. There's more blood on her hands either way.

"Hey," Mariko says awkwardly.

Vivienne stares.

'Hey?' She, or San, just flew into an insane berserker frenzy during the last interview, painting the walls with gore like some deranged serial killer, cost who knows how much money in spent ammunition, given those poor cleaners more horrors to clean up after, and all Mariko can say is 'hey?'

"Y-yeah, I know," Mariko continues. "I... saw what happened. It was..." she puffs her cheeks out and blows air. "Yeah. A-anyway, I'm just... doing a routine check-up. There's only so much the cameras can tell us."

Vivienne feels San's eyes fly from corner to corner seeking out any cameras watching them while Mariko pulls out a tablet. She's temporarily distracted by San's threatening vocalizations.

_"Don't hurt her,"_ he snarls, but with the way he's situated and with no lips (and presumably no tongue) it comes out like _"on'ch hur'ch her."_

"He doesn't like you," Vivienne supplies.

Mariko ducks her head. "Can't blame him." She sighs. "If you could, I need you to stand as upright as you can, please."

It takes considerable effort, needing to support herself and San with her good hand anchored to the wall (using the one arm that can still fully straighten), and one of her legs is impossible to move without intense pain, but Vivienne does as asked. It puts a lot of weight on her now digitigrade feet, though. At least Godzilla or Kong don't have this problem. After a moment Mariko scrunches her scarred face.

"God, there's more bone than muscle tissue now. I can't get a clear reading."

She comes closer, as if that will help. Closer to the human-titan freak.

Vivienne makes a low noise. "You're a brave one. Are you sure you want to do that?"

Mariko glances up at her, throat clearing. "I'll admit, I kind of heard you were impossible to anger, but... Emma used to say you were scary as hell if the right buttons were pressed. Never took you for the violently angry sort. Or maybe that was all him back there."

Vivienne chuffs. She doesn't know what happened before coming to and discovering she's missing large portions of her body and the chamber looking like a scene from hell. All she recalls is... a red haze.

"Still, it says something about the bond you had with Serizawa," Mariko continues. For a moment Vivienne forgets her current troubles. Wonders how sensei has been, if he'd visited his son Ren recently. The Obon Festival must have passed by; she smiles a little, recalling Serizawa taking her to that summertime celebration for the first time and how it became a sort of tradition for them to attend every year. She remembers the sun, the music and performances, the food, the dancing. She almost doesn't catch Mariko's followup comment of, "It's good that you cherish his memory so fiercely."

...

_What._

_what does she mean_

No. No, this... this is just a trick. They've phased out of chemical warfare and gone to psychological. That last interviewer, he talked about Serizawa in the present tense, hadn't he? He made it sound like Serizawa's alive and well. And why wouldn't he be fine? That arrogant old snake Jonah must have put Mariko up to this. That miserable piece of...

"You're lying," Vivienne growls, dangerously low.

Mariko gives her a look between confusion and fear. "Didn't they tell you?"

"Tell. Me. What."

"I-I thought you knew already. The way you talked about sacrifice, I assumed you heard about how Serizawa—"

Something inside her snaps. She's done being passive. Vivienne's fist strikes the wall with startling strength, hard enough to leave an impact crater and send dust falling down, stands tall enough that her head ridges brush the ceiling. Mariko panics and drops her tablet when Vivienne takes a step forward in barely restrained wrath.

"STOP LYING TO ME!" she roars.

_sister please calm down be calm focus come back come back_

"I'm sorry!" Mariko cries out. "Please, calm down!"

"YOU DON'T DESERVE TO SAY HIS NAME!"

In her fear Mariko switches from English to Japanese. Apologizes, prostrates herself as though Vivienne is a vengeful god, begs forgiveness. Explains that she's not lying, nor does she have any reason to lie. Vivienne snaps back in her own accented Japanese, bellowing at Mariko to get out. The scientist inches for her tablet, close enough that Vivienne can slam her hand down like a divine hammer strike, but there's that feeling of invisible limbs holding her back - San holds her back.

_She's lying._

_what is the purpose of lying_

Mariko pulls up documents, pleading it's the truth, brings up official reports, Monarch's gone public in the months since that long night, the whole world knows about it - knows about him. Everyone but the one who should know the most. Vivienne needs to look, must look, but doesn't want to because that would make it real. It would mean the one thing that's kept her going thus far has been buried for months.

"He gave his life to save Godzilla," Mariko whimpers.

Vivienne looks and sees the reports. The official details.

Not buried.

No body.

Nothing left.

* * *

**<M. [DATA EXPUNGED], video recording, **██**-**██**-2020>**

I did as Jonah asked.

[Mariko's gaze lowers. She stares at a spot on her desk for a long beat. Smacks lips.]

Before I told her about Serizawa, there was honest-to-god _hope_ in those eyes. Like she was hoping he's okay. She was _smiling_. Graham had such a gorgeous smile. Then, well. Then she was staring at me and it's like something just _died_ inside of her. She... her eyes were open, but she was... _gone_.

[Mariko pours alcohol into a glass, takes a shot. She swallows and takes a breath.]

That's when she started crying. I mean, actually _crying._ Just walked away from me in shock, hit the wall, and started sobbing into her hands. That sound... I had to leave. What else could I do? Offer empty platitudes like, 'oh, he cared so much about you' or, 'oh, he would have been so happy to know you're still alive'? God. The whole base could hear her screaming her heart out. I wouldn’t be surprised if a nearby Titan could hear it too. If Jonah wants to give me lip about it, he can fuck right off. Leave her alone for once and let her mourn in peace.

[Sardonic chuckle.]

Back in Monarch, we all had our bets going on about what kind of relationship she had with Serizawa. I was kind of in the "dating" side of the pool. We were only half right. She loves him... but it's the way you love a father.

[Sniffles. Covers her mouth.]

Otōsan. That's what she was crying out.

**<End recording>**

* * *

something is broken in their chest

he does not understand he wills it to heal but nothing happens he sees faces there are faces everywhere now the man’s face serizawa's face it hurts to look at him why it makes no sense why look at something if it hurts serizawa made sister happy why does it hurt so much to think of serizawa he doesn’t understand she feels it and doesn’t feel it she is alive her name means alive so why doesn’t she _feel alive_

so he asks her

_why?_

... 

She mindlessly carves into the floor. The characters that spell out _his_ name stare back at her. Distantly she’s aware that San is asking her something. He's been asking her something. She should feel bad for not noticing, but... it’s like anything to feel is just out of reach, and there isn’t enough energy or will or desire to...

_why?_

_His_ face flashes before her eyes and she closes them. She’s so tired.

“Hurts because he’s...” 

Dead.

All this time she held on to the belief - the _hope_ \- that Serizawa made it through to the end. That he got to see their king of the monsters slay the dragon, that he got to witness the world saved and the dawn of a new era. Mankind living alongside the Titans. So why does it feel like the world has ended? Why does the thought of seeing daylight again leave her cold?

Ishiro Serizawa is... dead. Her teacher, her mentor, her friend... the man she would have gladly called father, the one she hoped to see again after escaping this wretched place... the most important person in her life. She _loves_ him. Loved him. There is nothing left of him. Even an imprint of his shadow would have been destroyed. All that remains of him are memories. He is dead. And she remains. She no longer has the will to mourn, her voice spent from keening. Nothing lasts. Even the gods have their time. Perhaps she will fade away some day and this chamber will become her tomb. Just as Jonah said; Vivienne Graham is dead... in spirit. Maybe her body and mind will catch up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ᛇ - Eihwaz. “Yew (tree).” The thirteenth rune. It represents the mysteries of life and death, upheaval and transformation, and the initiatory death (as when Odin sacrificed himself to learn the runes). The European yew is long-lived, but poisonous.


	5. Gebō

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Good news, everyone! This chapter marks the end of the suffering! Also, I've decided to add notes at the end of each chapter detailing the chapter title runes and what they mean in relation to the story. Thanks again for reading!

ᚷ

_"Sometimes the only way to heal our wounds is to make peace with the demons that created them."_  
—Dr. Ishiro Serizawa

_"You take away the uniforms and the war, and he became my brother."  
_—Lieutenant Hank Marlow

* * *

The walls are crawling. Not floaters in her vision. Maybe.

She remembers this. Or, something like this. Back when she knew what she looked like, when she wasn't afraid to close her eyes or open them. She blinks and her peripheral vision is fragmented.

More barrels of meat and water are brought in. Where her insides once screamed for sustenance they now distantly whimper. Tongue is swollen, glued to the roof of her mouth. So tired. Can't even force herself to move at San's insistence. He begs her to just _try please please please try please_ he'll keep going until his words lose all meaning and become nothing but noise.

_plan we had a plan what about the plan to get out_

And then what? Who is waiting for them? The world will still turn, the days go on, the people rebuilding and recovering what they can. She's not buried, but she's rotting. Ilene and Ling, Rick, Sam, Mark and Madison, Ren, Foster. Mother. They'll get over her.

* * *

**<Sgt. Travis, video recording,** ██**-**██**-2020>**

[Travis appears sleep-deprived. He groans and rubs fingers up and down his temples. He takes two pills from a bottle (likely aspirin) and drinks a cup of water.]

Third day in a row with this headache. Some of the guys are getting worse. Kauffman, I know he has a history of migraines, but I think he's starting to go off the deep end. Said he thought ████████ was _talking_ to him. Maybe I'm starting to lose it too. The headaches aren't so bad when I'm down there in the ██████████████. They actually go away whenever he's purring... or singing. It's creepy, but I don't want him to stop, though. The pain gets worse when we leave for the day. I like it down there. The Colonel likes it too. He listens the closest and says he can almost hear words. ████████'s talking to us. Colonel said Graham could hear him too—

[Travis looks up suddenly, stares at the door. Several seconds pass.]

Thought I heard something.

[He gets up, opens the door, looks outside both ways. Closes door, locks it. Returns to desk.]

Could've sworn...

[Reaches for pill bottle again but stops. Seems to second guess himself.]

I... I think something's wrong with me. Kauffman says he's seeing things in the shadows. Wait. No, Kauffman hears things. Who was seeing things? Fuck, what's his name again? Asher. No - no, Ash's dead. He's been dead for months. How'd I forget that? Then who... w-was anyone seeing things after all, or did I just...?

[Travis presses fingertips hard against his temples. Takes a deep breath.]

Graham could talk to ████████, or... or she could _hear_ him at least. Did she? Christ, everything is starting to blur. I know something's wrong with me. Yesterday I locked my door and forgot about it. ██████ said I stood outside my room just rattling the knob for like five minutes. Graham never lost it - I remember seeing her on the news at some hearing with Serizawa. I distinctly remember that. She was cool as shit, nothing wrong with her. How the hell did she do it? We took everything we could from Outpost 32. Samples, data, maybe we have bits of surveillance. She was sane to the end. Find out what she did - _fuck!_

[Sharp hissing breath. Fingernails dig into skin. Several seconds pass. Travis relaxes suddenly, eyes glazing over.]

I'm going to see ████████ now.

**<End recording>**

* * *

she is seeing things sometimes not always only sometimes in the corners in the shadows in the barrier's light she doesn't sleep well barely sleeps doesn't eat have to take over so she can eat must conserve their strength that was the plan why what is wrong

when she sees things he knows she sees them but he can't see them not even when he takes over to eat for her he doesn't see them they are like her dreams or nightmares she is awake but is dreaming seeing he thinks he remembers doing the same when he and brothers were frozen during the long night he thinks he saw things too yes he saw things as he waited and listened and watched through ice and rock and time

but this is different she only has him he had brothers to keep him present during the long night she only has him and they are different so different maybe too different even though they are closer to the same they are not connected the same way as he was with brothers but he can feel her mind slipping and going she sees things then the things he can't see

sleep she needs to sleep she sees things because she can't sleep he tries to help her sleep but he knows she sees eldest brother in her sleep so she carves before sleep carves into the walls and floor letters and characters he can't read them but he knows they are different languages one goes up then down another goes left to right he can't read them but sees their shapes some are lines straight and jagged

wait

one shape he recognizes this shape he knows this shape when sister built metal cages a mark a symbol like wings like his wings like the fire demon's wings like the life bringer's wings this is sister's mark the mark of her kind he knows it! he remembers it! tell her tell her tell her before she slips away he can bring her back with this mark!

* * *

**<Mariko [DATA EXPUNGED] mobile recording 2>**

Next big thing the notes talk about is, get this, Dyatlov Pass. I remember hearing about it from a YouTube video of all things, and it’s not too far away from here. The story goes that in 1959 a group of hikers are heading up the Ural Mountains and they set up camp in Kholat Syakhl, nobody hears from them when they’re supposed to make contact, and a search team discovers their camp is a wreck. No survivors. Initially it was thought the indigenous Mansi people were responsible for the deaths, but there was nothing to support that theory.

Among other things, some interesting notes about the incident include: tents being ripped open from the_ inside_, traces of evidence indicating the hikers left their camp voluntarily and on foot, the force of the fatal injuries on three of the hikers being too strong to be caused by another human being like the Mansi people – and also no damage to soft tissue.

Oh, and high levels of radiation were detected on one of the victim’s clothing.

Initially the official verdict was that all involved had died "because of a compelling natural force". I don’t know about you, whoever you are watching this, but you don’t get many natural forces more compelling than a Titan. So, after all the official business is all said and done, Soviets bring in another expedition team to Kholat Syakhl. Everything afterwards in that book is redacted to hell and back.

**<End recording>**

* * *

**<News footage,** ██-██**-2020>**

...after an unexpected earthquake shook through western Russia, local eyewitnesses reported some individuals actually leaving the safety of their homes and shelters of their own volition; upon questioning the individuals gave consistent reports of being, quote, "compelled by a noise like thunder under their feet, or a great voice". Tremors ceased around the Ural mountain range.

[Cut to camera footage of local giving a report, translated from Russian.]

"Didn't feel like an earthquake to me. You know the vibrations when someone upstairs or downstairs is charging like an elephant? It felt more like that. Like something underground suddenly woke up and rushed like it's late for work. My cousin was one of the idiots went outside 'cause he heard a voice and he said it felt like he had to go out there and he wanted to hear it. Maybe it's a Titan?"

[Cut back to news anchor.]

The survivors of Monarch Outpost 66, situated in the Manpupuner Rock Formations, are currently establishing contact with the locals and an investigation is underway. Time will tell if another Titan will see the light of day.

* * *

**<Civilian quarters, surveillance footage, **██**-**██**-2020>**

11:07:07 pm: The Moscow refugees are going about their day. The main door is guarded by two large men. A small group investigates a pile of notebooks at a table.

11:10:24 pm: The two men give a start when the door starts pounding. A voice from outside calls from outside to be "let the fuck in! Stop fucking playing!" The door opens and a bloodied young man bursts inside; a young woman embraces him. The two men close and lock the door.

11:12:01 pm: Young man is injured and agitated, takes a seat to collect himself while others ask what happened. The group investigating the notes briefly take notice but return to their research.

11:15:13 pm: Young man explains that Jonah's guards have been acting strange lately and one of them seems to be hallucinating. Others ask if that was who attacked him. Young man glances at the door and lowers his voice; response indistinct. Once more part of the research group shows interest. Young man mentions the guard hallucinating a "voice" that won't leave him alone. One of the door guards remarks that Jonah himself hasn't been seen in some time and his personal guards don't appear to have a fixed schedule; he has seen some guards just randomly decide to go downstairs to the ██████████████.

11:17:33 pm: The young woman says "of course he's hallucinating. It's cabin fever." Some aren't so certain.

**<End recording>**

* * *

> **<Command room, video recording, **██**-**██**-2020>**
> 
> [Mariko, ████ and Tejada sit and watch Subject G.]
> 
> ████**:** It looks half-dead. Honestly? I kinda feel sorry for it.
> 
> **Tejada:** For what?
> 
> ████**:** Just... that screaming and crying? I remember my mom making sounds like that when my sister died.
> 
> **Tejada:** Speaking of noise, you catch the news? I'm starting to think it's only a matter of time before Monarch finds this place. Guess that'd make you happy, huh, Doc? Didn't even have to blow the roof off or whatever.
> 
> **Mariko:** (No response.)
> 
> ████**:** Jeez. Stiffer than the stiff down there.
> 
> **Mariko:** She deserves better.
> 
> **Tejada:** Maybe. But you know, sometimes shit just happens. (Beat.) Do you think it was quick? The first time she died?
> 
> ████**:** Assuming it died at all. Thing's practically immortal.
> 
> **Tejada:** So was Monster Zero before Godzilla lit him up. What'd the boss call him - Ghidra?
> 
> **Mariko:** Ghidorah.
> 
> **Tejada:** Right, that. Maybe it didn't go fast. Between a big damn hunk of ice breaking up between a set of jaws like that, she'd probably have been crushed. Didn't even get dusted by that lightning-breath stuff. And she was only half-digested. Rasputin would be impressed.
> 
> [████'s walkie crackles. He talks into it.]
> 
> ████**:** Hey, boss man's still alive. 
> 
> **Tejada:** No shit? Haven't heard from him in a while. 
> 
> ████**: **I really don't like how much time him and the others are spending downstairs - something about the head's fucking with them, I know it. Yesterday I saw Travis, for the first time in three days, just staring at the wall while eating... no, I'm wrong. He was just gnawing at his food and staring at the wall. Gave me the goddamn creeps.
> 
> **Tejada:** Bone-Doc down there isn't the only one who needs a therapist.
> 
> **Mariko:** What does Jonah want?
> 
> ████**:** He wants to do another test.
> 
> **Mariko:** Code for torture.
> 
> ████**:** At this point, you're not wrong...
> 
> **<End recording>**

* * *

The chamber begins to smell of gas. Containment field’s off. Doors open... oh. God fucking damn it.

_HURTS IT HURTS IT BURNS_

He’s screaming. Try to keep San away from the flames. He’s right – it hurts. She’s aware of the pain; it just feels distant, muted. Like she’s on morphine. The fire makes her think of Serizawa. Anything and everything makes her think of him. Is that how grief works? It must have been fast for him. Vaporized in a flash of light. Funny. He was born in the shadow of a bomb and he died in the shadow of a bomb. 

Flames lick her face, burn her eyes. A voice crackles from above.

"Look at it. Understand a fraction of what _he_ went through to set up that nuke. Don’t you turn away, _you coward._ Stare death in the face with some dignity like he must have, instead of screaming like a little bitch."

She watches the skin char and flake off her fingers. It’s strangely interesting. Like dead leaves in autumn. _If only you could do the same. If it was allowed you might have the guts to bash your skull against the wall or floor till your brain leaks out the cracks before the fucking thing regenerates. _

"Serizawa died as Serizawa. Can _you_ say the same? What the hell did he even see in you? You useless lump of self-aware meat and bone."

Talking at her like she’s a fish in a tank. They’re right, aren’t they.

_no don’t think like that don’t think like that please_

"Senior paleozoologist, PHD, Oxford. So what? At the end of the day, you were a fucking footnote. Barely worth remembering. You were a temporary presence, a passing curiosity, like those bones you can supposedly read so well. You'd have been replaced a long time ago."

_Have a read of these bones, eh? See the future for a pence? Better than a fortune cookie._ _The professors at Oxford always thought that occult spook shit was a waste of a brilliant mind._

"Did you think you could put that big PHD brain to use thinking of a way out of here, maybe get Castle Bravo on the horn? Call off the funeral, you don’t have a body. Oh no, too late? Did they forget all about you?"

_sister please you feel so far away come back come back please_

_No. It’s fine. _

"So what if they forget? You were just an extension of Serizawa. That’s all you ever were."

...

She can move some. _Maybe now you can do it. Paint this fucking tomb with your gray matter._

* * *

**<M. [DATA EXPUNGED], audio recording,** ██**-**██**-2020>**

This isn't a medical report. I should hope I don't have to explain myself to Jonah. This is just recent concerns I have about his men.

Something is deeply wrong with them. Aside from the obvious. I don't know what Jonah and the Creepy Basement Club are doing down there, but those guards are suffering a serious decline in mental health. Just today I went down to the mess hall and Travis was at the end of the hall, staring at me slack-jawed. I asked him if he was okay - comparatively speaking, him and Tejada are all right for eco-terrorists - but he didn't answer. Didn't even look at me. He just kept staring. I don't think he blinked the whole time.

I think I made some crack about those personal guards of his making like secret police or something, I don't remember my exact words, it's been like a month. But some of the refugees have gone missing. I know one of the cleaners mouthed off at Jonah and he just vanished into the ether the following night. I've been talking with some of the refugees and one of them, Zima, he knew the guy personally. He and some of the others have started guarding the civilian quarters at night to make sure nobody else goes missing... and also the Basement Club guys have been fucking with them. Zima says one of them - he doesn't know who - started pawing at the door and talking weirdly.

Jonah doesn't seem to have changed at all. Actually, he seems to have abandoned all pretenses and had one of his men light Graham up with napalm while he taunted her over the intercom. Didn't even bother justifying it like he did with the chlorine gas. He only did it because he felt like it. I'd tell him off, but I don't want to end up like Zima's friend. If Monarch finds us, I really hope they unload a whole clip on him on sight.

**<End recording>**

* * *

There's someone in the shadows. She tries to ignore it. Looking at it, acknowledging it, makes it real. Nothing is really there. Still the thing that isn't in the shadows waits, lingering. Like a predator. A wolf stalking its prey. Always waits till she's on the edge of exhaustion and she can't stay awake anymore, has to choose between it and the Dragon hiding lurking _leering_ in the darkness of closed eyelids. 

She's dealt with sleepless delusions like this in the past, before Emma's betrayal and Ghidorah's rise, back when it was still in its frozen prison. But back then her vision hadn't blurred or fractured like torn apart photographs during those times. No kaleidoscopic bursts of vibrancy when the lights and barrier flare. No flickers of light in her peripheral. Just the vague outline of a shape in the darkest shadows, like what a child sees when it's time for bed and mother turns the light off. 

_sister_

She blinks and it's gone.

_sister wake up you are dreaming_

"Awake." She doesn't recognize her own voice. A sepulchral rasp.

_sister your mark_

"What mark."

On its own volition, her still mobile arm inches close and scratches into the floor beside her head. No, not on its own - San controls it. He's been taking over sometimes. Acting the caretaker to her maimed invalid. He... takes care of her. Almost as if—

_this mark sister your mark_

Her eyes drift to a clumsily scrawled chicken scratch. San's first attempt at writing. That's actually quite an achievement for someone who's never had fingers. She stares at it and recognizes Monarch's logo.

"What about it."

_your mark it's your mark remember this one remembers your mark_

"It's a rune."

_runes like letters but what are runes_

"Why do you care."

She feels his enthusiasm deflate and catches a twinge of something in her chest. Guilt, maybe. His voice is... smaller.

_this one thought he could bring you back with your mark this one wants to know your mark your rune wants to understand why you hurt when you think of that man_

Hurt. As if she's sprained her ankle. Of course he doesn't understand. She can't expect him to, not when he didn't seem to care about his brothers' deaths. How do you teach human concepts to an inhuman mind? Explain the inevitability of death, the cessation of existence, to a being that's for all intents and purposes immortal?

There it is again - that stab of pain like something lodges itself in her hearts. She's never felt loss this hard before. Of all the people in her life she's known and cared for and loved and lost, from little Andrew to her own grandparents to the friends and coworkers she'd promised to help, none of their deaths weigh down on her like Serizawa's. Is it because her biological father died just before her birth and she never got to know him beyond what stories and mementos her mother kept? That she latched onto Serizawa as a surrogate after never having such a figure in her life, who not only understood her focus and drive but matched it with his own and encouraged it?

"You wouldn't understand."

_what wouldn't this one understand_

"When I told you about your brothers, did you even blink? Did you care?"

_dead now but not gone they will be back but what does that have to do with this why does that matter_

Christ.

"It matters because _you_ might be able to come back, but _we_ can't. Even if we did get out of here, we can never do what you did with me. There's nothing left of him."

_nothing?_

"Nothing!" Her voice cracks. "My memories are all I have left of him."

She is all she has left of him. That's all she is, the extent of her existence even now. Just an extension of something.

_then show this one make him understand let this one see serizawa as you saw him_

She makes a fist, suddenly overcome with furious, greedy protectiveness. A dragon guarding its most precious treasure from intruders. Her taloned fingers tingle like with something hot and static, like when that soldier dared to taunt her - taunt a broken would-be titan. Fury scorches her blood, light flickers in her peripheral, exacerbating her anger, turning what's left of her voiceless growl into a demonic rattle.

"You won't take him from me!"

_not what this one wants please be calm this one only wants to understand this one can show you his memories too_

She tempers her rage, but hesitates. If Ghidorah can come back, this could just be a ploy to lower her guard so San can take full control, or something. Manipulation comes in many disguises but often favors a friendly one. Would she even care at this point?

_please vivienne_

Just like that her fist relaxes, though more out of shock than anything else. San has never used her name before. He's always called her _sister_ or _bone singer_. When was the last time anyone addressed her by her given name? She looks at him. There is no deception. His desperation pours into her. She takes the risk.

"I'll show you."

* * *

**<M. [DATA EXPUNGED]****, video recording,** ██**-**██**-2020>**

Okay, this is weird. Both Graham and Subject G-1a just went into some kind of trance state. I thought we were filling up on crazy, but this only makes sense. On top of untreated PTSD, insomnia, severe depression, torture under the guise of "tests," and borderline suicidal thoughts from what few times I've gotten through to her since breaking the news, solitary confinement isn't something I'd wish on my worst enemy.

That aside, I'm seriously getting worried about this location. The news says the earthquakes stopped around the Ural mountains, but we're all feeling vibrations every now and then. There's got to be an underground Titan wandering around. It had to have been attracted to Graham's cries. They were so loud the audio recordings were just... static. I want to tell people to get the hell out of dodge, but I'm worried that Jonah might start hurting or killing people just to keep us here. I don't even know what we're doing anymore. Between Jonah's goons going full Blair Witch Project and the quakes, we could be in terrible danger long before Monarch finds out—

[Sudden, frantic knocking. Mariko is startled. Takes a handgun, makes for the door, asks "who is it?" Hushed voice responds in Russian. Mariko hurriedly opens the door and lets a woman in; she looks behind her before shutting the door. The woman holds some notebooks, speaks in hushed but hurried tone.]

> **Mariko:** Rada, what—
> 
> **Rada:** This place - it wasn't built for Titans—
> 
> **Mariko:** I figured that much. The containment chamber is too small for...
> 
> **Rada:** Listen! The Soviets found a live Titan under the mountains! Not contained!
> 
> **Mariko:** _What?_
> 
> **Rada:** Here! In the notes! They thought he was the cause of Dyatlov Pass - maybe he was! Chuchunya look like him - sketches, see—
> 
> [Rada flips through the notebook. Slaps finger against certain page.]
> 
> **Mariko:** Oh my god.
> 
> **Rada:** He's bio-electric - _can't_ be contained! Just overloads or absorbs electricity! Quakes, people hearing voice or thunder, it must be him coming!
> 
> **Mariko:** Taranis, Ukko, Thor, Perun... shit, maybe he's coming for Graham. Maybe he heard Graham and thought it was, like, the Jörmungandr to his Thor?
> 
> **Rada:** I don't know!
> 
> [A sound at the door. Both stare at it.]
> 
> **Mariko:** Were you followed?

**<End recording>**

* * *

Her entire being reels.

Seeing the world through San's eyes - through _Ghidorah's_ eyes - is too much. Of _everything_. Every sight and sound and scent and touch magnified far beyond anything a human mind can process - is _capable_ of processing - and she wants to shut her eyes and cover her ears. So much, so fast! Sometimes it's like the world plays in slow motion when San takes in details; he was the sentry, the watcher, the scout, he was hard-wired to look for details. It takes her a moment to realize she's in the middle of a storm, looking down at something familiar. For all the wrong reasons she delights in it, imagines the mortal terror in those hiding in that construct, and flares impossible wings. 

Not her. It's not _her_ feelings. These are _San's_ memories. _Focus. Distance yourself from it. Don't lose yourself._

Heat sears her face and a blazing demon lunges, its screaming maw alight with hellfire but she - _San_ \- pulls away reflexively. An aerial battle between Ghidorah and - Rodan! She's entranced, part of her wishing she could have seen it play out in person, the brutal majesty of it like some primordial dance. The King of the Sky himself, the Fire Demon, the One Born from Fire! The battle is a short one, but he fights and flies with such grace!

It takes her a moment to realize she's going backwards. They're back in Antarctica. It goes by so fast Vivienne almost doesn't notice she just relived her own "death". She sees the preceding events; Ghidorah frozen, Emma setting off the bombs, Mark rushing in to save his family, Jonah calling someone's name after he takes a bullet... she sees herself. How strange. Then, for a long time, nothing. The ice crackles and groans around Ghidorah like a dream sarcophagus. Coleridge comes to mind.

> _'And through the drifts the snowy clifts  
_ _Did send a dismal sheen:  
_ _Nor shapes of men nor beasts we ken—  
_ _The ice was all between._

> _The ice was here, the ice was there,  
_ _The ice was all around:  
_ _It cracked and growled, and roared and howled,  
_ _Like noises in a swound!'_

She doesn’t know how far back San is taking her. It doesn’t feel quite like the flashbacks she’s experienced, like being dumped back in time to relive memories she doesn’t want. It's as if she’s perpetually standing at the edge of something beyond the limits of a mortal mind, an event horizon leading to the sublime, and the horizon beyond that, and the next, and the next…

Deep time.

She blinks and everything is the same, and yet not. It feels familiar, perhaps in the sense of dream logic, when you walk in a space you know you’ve never been to but _feel_ like you’ve walked through it a hundred or so times before. Vivienne briefly recalls the day she first stepped off an Osprey and onto arctic ice, puzzled by an ominous sense of _déjà vu._

Or perhaps it had been _déjà vécu._

Bones rattle.

She’s looking from behind the ice at a figure; small and lean, garbed in thick furs and shamanistic fetishes. The figure looks up from where they sit cross-legged before casting bones, their face obscured by a mane of lime-washed hair tied in elaborate plaits and adorned with baubles, an antlered headdress with a mask and the jaw bones of some creature. The figure looks rather like a creature in their own right. She imagines their body under the furs and bones is roped with sinuous muscles like a wolf, rather than bulging like a modern day person. Frostbitten fingers are clamped around a spear.

She blinks and notices other figures sitting before the ice, but these don't have mist puffing from their masks like the first.

_won’t last much longer _Vivienne tells the figure but she’s talking in San’s voice and other voices_, _remembers that she’s seeing this through his memories_ bone singers are all gone you are alone now bone singer YOU WILL DIE ALONE AND FORGOTTEN and then what your vigil is over NOTHING LASTS **YOU ARE NOTHING** no need to keep watch can always run away RUN AWAY LIKE A COWARD **YOUR LIFE WILL END**_

The figure – the bone singer – flashes the slightest of smiles.

"Not the end," the bone singer replies. It’s clearly not in English, the language is long dead, but the words register in Vivienne’s mind as if she herself speaks and understands it.

_bone singer is mortal bone singer is TINY TEMPORARY **AN INSECT** YOU ARE PREY **YOU ARE FOOD** what if you are wrong what if your gods are wrong YOU ARE WRONG why aren’t you scared you will die soon **YOU WILL DIE**_

The bone singer tilts their head slightly, pale eyes staring from behind the mask. "Death smiles at all and I smile back. It is necessary to die, to be born anew. Life and death are branches of the same tree."

_but what if you are wrong **DEATH IS THE END OF ALL THINGS** what if there is no life after this YOU ARE TEMPORARY your body will decay and rot ROT AND FREEZE FOREVER **WE ARE ETERNAL WE ARE DEATHLESS** what if you are wrong_

The bone singer shrugs. "Then I rest. What happens when your kind dies?"

Such insolence. 

** _WE ARE DEATHLESS _ ** _WE ARE ETERNAL **WE ARE THE DESTROYER OF WORLDS **CONSUMED EMPIRES OF FLESH AND BONE AND METAL we live forever cut off our heads and they will grow back **THE HEAD IS THE SEAT OF THE SOUL** THE HEAD IS THE SEAT OF THE SOUL the head is the seat of the soul_

The bone singer nods sagely, hand grasping their belt where old, shrunken heads are adorned. "We believe something similar. To take off a head and claim it as yours is to claim the soul. It grants powerful magic. But what of the heads you might lose? Would you reclaim them? What happens if someone were to claim your soul?"

_NO IMPOSSIBLE **NO ONE CAN TAKE OFF OUR HEADS** shameful defeat the worst defeat **NOT EVEN YOUR DEEP ONE CAN CLAIM OUR HEADS** NOT YOUR LIFE BRINGER NOT YOUR FIRE DEMON NOT YOUR GUARDIANS AND DESTROYERS **NOT EVEN YOU** no man can claim our heads it is impossible_

"Perhaps, perhaps." With some effort the bone singer stands up, joints snapping and cracking like wet planks of wood. Using their spear as a crutch, they gaze up at the frozen demon. Old flecks of war paint are visible under the mask and when they smile next the bone singer shows their teeth, filed down to points like a beast. "But you said so yourself – death is the end of all things."

* * *

_not right it's not right he doesn't_ feel right, these are sister's memories and he doesn't feel right, it's because he doesn't belong, everything is... quieter. As if he is in a cramped tunnel.

He feels _so small._ Surrounded by little ones - but they tower over sister. Any one of them could lift her over their heads, but sister is small; that means she's quick, and she is clever. She can run and hide, squeeze into places the larger ones could never fit into. And how small she is now! Sister was already so, so tiny and he never thought it possible she could have been even smaller! He sees her hiding and sneaking among the bones of big things, some like the Deep One, but barely knee-high to an infant of his species.

In a flash she is bigger now, casts down bones for others like her. Next she magnifies a great, ancient bone under glass and reads the minuscule patterns like writings on a scroll. This he thinks is familiar and is glad to know he'd been right; a true bone singer, just like the one he encountered through the ice, just before the long night. Another flash - so many, so fast! He could blink and miss her whole life. He focuses, intent to observe and learn. Sister had to have been an alpha to the little ones. How else could she have contained him and elder brothers? Something approaches – a challenger? A predator? He forgets himself and tries to appear formidable.

"What's your name?" the challenger asks.

"Vivienne Graham," she responds. Fearless and open. He is shocked. Then he remembers; this is the man named Serizawa. The man has fewer lines in his face. He seems stiff and almost cold, even when they clasp hands. It doesn’t last long as they talk. She says something and Serizawa gives her a look, his posture relaxing. He shows her things – pictures – and she responds to them. Is this a game?

"Come on," she says eventually. "Give me a challenge."

Serizawa smiles and pulls out a secret picture in its own special holder, hands it to her. She looks it over, notices something. Lays it on a flat surface, magnifies the image. After a while she looks up at the man in a new light, something yearning in her chest.

Looking through these memories, he is aware of a sense of... belonging. A connection that reminds him of the link that binds – _bound_ him to elder brothers, and yet it is nothing like that link. Intangible, but it is felt. It feels warm, and safe. Comforting. He never felt such things with his brothers.

He watches the years go by. The morning she wakes up under a covering with traces of the man’s scent. Their first journey together, the reverence she feels standing in the bones of another like the Deep One, the one she and the man call Gojira… or is it Godzilla? He can never tell. Their talks, how she surprises the man with her zeal and focus and eagerness and she can see how his dark eyes light up in these moments. He can feel her admiration of Serizawa, how she aches and longs for something that has been missing from her whole existence.

On one particular day, when winter’s chill gives way into the new life of spring, Serizawa is stiff and awkward again.

"Vivienne." He presents her with a strange little box. "Happy birthday."

"Oh!" She takes it gratefully, thanking the man. "You didn’t have to do that..."

"No, but... I wanted to."

The significance of this ritual is lost on him. She rattles the box by her ear playfully and the man gives her an anxious smile. Sister opens the box and reveals a sort of bauble, a pendant engraved with an image of the Deep One.

"It was my father’s," Serizawa says and she gapes at him. "It was hand-carved and given to him by a Yapese man, then he passed it to me... and now it is yours."

_"Mine?_ I... I can’t accept this... I mean – surely it should go to Ren..."

"My son and I don’t always see things eye to eye. I respect that, and I wish him every success and happiness in the path he takes. But with you..." The man looks away, nervous. “I feel like you truly understand me. What we are working for. I see this spark in you and it makes everything... I don’t know where I would be without you."

Her heart skips one or two beats. "Sensei..."

Serizawa looks at her with so much warmth and affection. A gentle smile spreads across his lips and something in his voice wavers. "I am _so proud_ of you, Vivienne."

It’s as if she cannot contain the surge of light and joy flooding through her. She lunges and takes the man in her arms, holds him close and strong. Serizawa embraces her tightly and she listens to the steady drum of the man’s heart. She does not say it, but he hears the words:

_I love you._

He realizes at last that she was no alpha. She had no need for dominance or control, no need to hunt or fight or kill. She is kindness, light, hope, warmth, wisdom, life, and... _oh!_

For one infinitesimal moment he sees her as she was, before the ice and long night, and he is stunned. Her sharp, angular face is showing teeth, but it is not a threatening display. It is warm and welcoming. Her bright eyes are crinkling in the corners – have her eyes always been green? And her voice! Her lovely, velvety voice! Her laughter is a song! He forgets himself again, believing himself to be of _her_ kind, that she is laughing and smiling with him, _because_ of him, and – he has no word for the sensation in his breast. He desperately wants to share in this joy and tries to mirror her expression, hoping he could reflect even half of how incredible she is. She is...

She is beautiful.

But time flies too quickly. He doesn't want to see it go. Before he knows it he sees the Titans reawakening - standing before a prone Deep One after a long battle, his eyes opening and looking down at sister and Serizawa. She is overcome, her spirit elevated by the sheer sublime of it. Something twists inside him when the surroundings go cold and she steps onto ice for the first time... oh. Oh! She's looking at him! But... there is no wonder or love.

Only fear.

Icy claws grip his insides at the revelation. She was so afraid of him. He feels sister's instincts screaming at her to flee and never look back, the dread to sleep, the voices. He hears his own call as she heard it, sees the visions that plagued her waking hours after haunting her sleep for so long, feels the horror itching, clicking, crawling under her skin, and knows fear himself. How? How did he possibly think she could see him as a brother after terrorizing her so? How could he be so foolish?

His eyes grow hot and wet seeing himself and brothers rise from the ice, tries to shake his head as if denial could rewrite what has been done - no, no, no...

He hears a scream and everything inside him _stops._

_no no no please no_

He feels the heat. The ice shattering. The weight crushing the air out of her lungs. Bones breaking. Hearing reduced to a deafened ring. Falling, falling - there's a sudden snap and... nothing. Darkness.

She... dies?

He _killed_ her?

But... he brought her back. She has all her memories. He saw them! He saved her! Pulled her out before she was lost in that horrible, silent void, that emptiness, that nothingness... _not right not right bad not safe get away go back to the light_ the bone singer from before was unafraid of it. Madness! That bone singer was mad! How could it foresee what awaited it and not know fear?! 

Sister - he feels it - her body regurgitated into what was his neck for safe keeping, tethered together - feels the sudden surge of life returning to her, sees... oh no... even before the green glow, she was so _broken... _

He finally understands what has become of her – what _he_ has done to her. Eldest brother snatched her up, but HE did this. Twisted her, distorted, shattered, and destroyed something so precious. She doesn't want to be his sister. Why would she? This memory does not see him yet he averts his gaze. He cannot look at her, at what she was or what she now is. He is not worthy to look at her.

Whispers crawl under him and through him, and he tries to shut out the voices of his brothers but he can't he can’t _he can’t_

_YOUR FAULT YOU RUINED IT **YOU RUIN EVERYTHING** SO STUPID SO WORTHLESS **LUCKY TO BE PART OF US** YOU WRETCH YOU WASTE SO SLOW AND SOFT YOU CAN’T DO ANYTHING RIGHT **GO ON CRY FEEL SORRY FOR YOURSELF NOT EVEN SHE WILL DO THAT FOR YOU **WHY WOULD SHE WASTE HER TIME ON YOU **SHE HATES YOU**_

...why go on...?

* * *

Vivienne doesn’t know when she came back to the present, if she’d fallen asleep with her eyes open, but she’s roused by a strange noise at her back. She twists her neck to look at San. He’s producing short, broken exhales of breath and his eyes are wet. He won’t meet her gaze.

She blinks, puzzled. "San?"

_hurts._

"What hurts? Why are you crying?"

_crying. this feeling. hurts inside. crying because it hurts inside. saw you. saw that man. serizawa. chest feels broken. crying._

...oh. That’s right.

"What did you see?"

_you and him. smiling. never saw you smile in the ice. insides warm and full. safe. happy. beautiful. regret._

She furrows her brows at him. Is he referring to her regret of not telling Serizawa her feelings, or...?

"What regret?”

_regret. hunting you. calling you. killing you. eldest brother snatched you up but this one hurt you. twisted distorted shattered broke you. wanted to make you beautiful but you already were so beautiful and light and warm. you were happy. this one made you... like this. this one regrets. hurts so much._

Ah. So she truly did die. Vivienne isn't as surprised as she thinks she ought to be. It would be more surprising if she miraculously survived through all that even without San's aid. He heaves, not knowing if he should hold back or let it all out. But she senses something else, under the sorrow and remorse...

_regret. hurts. crying._

"You’re crying because... you’re sorry?"

San’s eyes shut and fat tears cascade down, gives a shuddering inhale before sobbing.

_sorry. so so so sorry. _

"San. Can you look at me?" He does after hesitating a long moment. "Why are you afraid?"

_...afraid... because... you. you died. and this one remembered something. long long long time ago. bone singer who came before. that bone singer wasn't afraid to die. this one has died but always came back. what if you die and this one dies... and we don't come back? what happens then? saw you die. saw darkness. silence. it was scary. don't want to die. i don't want to die._

Vivienne is stunned. She knows what he's talking about - she saw that same fearless bone singer herself. But this is the first time San has referred to himself in the first person. His spot on her back trembles. Vivienne is reminded of San Francisco, after Andrew's death, trying to comfort Madison through Emma and Mark's grief. Ignoring the pain as best she can, she curls her body to try and reach San, to touch him. It's hard. But she manages to stroke his snout with her fingertips. San stiffens, unsure of how to react to this. She recalls how his brothers treated him.

"I was scared too. It's okay to be scared."

_bone singer wasn't afraid. said it was necessary to be born again. you're not afraid of it anymore. but it's scary. saw nothing. only darkness. not even serizawa. didn't know him but want to see him again. see the light in his eyes. you remember?_

"Yes." She does. God, she does.

_this one wanted to make you light and happy like serizawa did. impossible now. this one ruins everything. brothers were right. brothers are always right._

Vivienne's expression hardens. "I'm sorry to say, but your brothers are the biggest cunts I've ever seen."

_you are not like brothers._

"I certainly hope not. Because it just now occurs to me... I haven't been very grateful to you, have I?" San gives her the most perplexed look and she continues stroking his snout. Small steps. Let him get used to it. "You saved me, took care of me, protected me. And I never once thanked you for it." She looks into his eyes. "I'm sorry."

_sorry too._

She sighs or chuckles. "Well, ain't we a pair."

_brothers will come back some day. but... not certain this one wants to be brothers with them anymore. this one likes you. i like you._

"I think I'm growing fond of you myself."

_besides. brothers are biggest cunts._

Vivienne wheezes in surprise and it turns into a laugh - the first genuine laugh in what feels like a century. San is suddenly vibrating in delight.

_laugh! i made you laugh!_

"You made a funny!" Vivienne gasps and breaks into a giggling fit. It must be a product of shock as well. Her chest hurts but she can't stop laughing; it feels so good after so long. And it is pretty funny, isn't it? An alien Titan cursing for the first time. It's like teaching a baby brother how to curse behind their parents' backs... oh. Come to think of it, he is rather like a brother. Everything they've gone through to this point, from that terrible start to an uneasy alliance to his growing protectiveness and desire to help her grow stronger, his desire for her approval. His bone-deep relief that she doesn't roar or berate or snap or bite him like his brothers did. His need to make her happy. 

Vivienne's laughter peters down and she feels what's left of her cheeks aching. After all he's done, doesn't he deserve some happiness as well? Someone who encourages him, teaches him, is patient and understanding with him, helps him, laughs and shows affection.

She can be those things.

Vivienne contorts her - their - body into a ball as much as she can, trying to keep their heads level with each other. She catches her reflection in his eyes and finds it's not as bad as she'd dreaded. Horns might be a good look for her. They certainly looked good on San.

"I'm sorry for being such a pain," she says. "And... thank you. Brother."

San blinks and his eyes go wide. He stares at her, not sure if he heard her right. After a moment she can see his eye growing wet with fresh tears, skin crinkling into something like crow's feet, and the corner of his mouth curves up. San's smiling. It's disarming, transforming. Their chest bursts with warmth. He tries to inch closer and she leans in to bump their heads together.

Vivienne may never see her friends and family again, but now she has found a brother in San.

* * *

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ᚷ - Gebō. "Gift". The seventh rune. The giving-receiving balance in friendships, and a connection between man and the gods.


	6. Thurisaz

ᚦ

_"Then seventh I chant thee, if frost shall seek_   
_To kill thee on lofty crags:_   
_The fatal cold shall not grip thy flesh,_   
_And whole thy body shall be."_

—Grógaldr

* * *

At some point they must have dozed off. Vivienne awakes thinking there's a ringing in her ears, but the sound has an external source - she just can't place it. Ah, well. This is an old facility; it must be like how an old house settles. Still... strange how she's never noticed such a sound until now. She stretches a little (not enough to agitate the bone growth) and is amused when San makes a sort of _brrrrp,_ like a cat roused from a long nap. She can't remember the last time she woke up with her spirit feeling lighter.

Remembering something, Vivienne nudges San. "Do you still want to know about the runes?"

San peers at her in confusion, so she looks around for his carving and taps it with a hooked claw, bringing them back around to what started their earlier exchange. He blinks, comprehending.

_ ah. i forget. yes. tell me please?_

"This one is dagaz. It's one of several, making up a very old language, and they all have names and meanings. Some humans even believe they have magic. Back in Monarch, my colleagues and I learned the whole alphabet. Called it 'Now I Know My What the Futharks'." She chuckles at the in-joke. Sensing his curiosity she carves another rune next to his. "Now... this one is eihwaz. It's a rune about the mysteries of life and death. It also represents initiation. There's a whole story about where the runes come from."

_story?_

She's got him. She wonders if his kind has stories of their own - Ghidorah had to come from somewhere he can call home, and they're intelligent enough. Vivienne somehow doubts his brothers could be bothered to regale San with myths and legends. Granted, Vivienne doesn't recall the academic source but is somewhat more familiar with the mythology, and she figures San would find that version much more interesting.

_vivienne. tell me the story?_

Vivienne feels herself smiling. "Once, the gods used to walk among men. One of them to the north was Odin - Allfather, god of ravens, war, and wisdom. He was always seeking knowledge, and no price was too great, no action too terrible. He traded his own eye for wisdom. He envied the Norns, who carved runes into the roots of the World Tree to shape fate, and he wanted to understand the runes, but they would only reveal themselves through a sacrifice.

"So Odin hung himself from a branch, pierced with his own spear, and dedicated the sacrifice to himself. For nine days and nine nights he hung there with no food or water to sustain him. Finally, the runes and revealed their secrets to Odin, who gave a cry and took them into his mind. With the knowledge he earned, Odin became one of the most powerful beings in the nine realms."

San is understandably perplexed that a god would go to such lengths. But he's also fascinated, and eager to learn. So very eager. It reminds Vivienne... rather of herself.

"Would you like me to teach you the runes?"

His eyes light up and he almost seems to be smiling. _yes!_

She finds a clear space on the adjacent wall and gets to work, carving into it with her claws, recites their names, tries to go at a pace he would be comfortable with, on top of mentally translating them for herself; Vivienne hesitates to call the Proto-Germanic tongues her third language due to mostly using the runes as a secret code for fun. Once all twenty-four are written, she feels him take over with that arm to carve for himself. She recites again, and he repeats. They eventually reach the rune that started it all. This one she knows all too well.

"This one is dagaz." She taps its butterfly shape. "It means day. But it also represents balance."

_balance?_

"Positive and negative, light and darkness."

_human and titan! like us!_

She pauses.

Oh... oh! Of course! All this time, the truth has been waiting in the back of her mind! They haven't just connected, but they've been _connecting_ \- a symbiotic fusion! She starts a thought and he finishes it; he presents an idea and she sees a solution. God, it's so obvious now! It's like a fog that's been hovering in her head has cleared up. She's starting to feel right again! Having a like mind like San's working in tandem with hers – the only other person she could do this with was... was Serizawa.

The thought of him brings a dull, sobering throb to their hearts. But the clarity remains.

Dagaz – balance – _coexistence_ – what they worked so hard for, what he _died_ for, it's within grasp. If Serizawa is watching over her, if there's a place he can see her from, Vivienne knows he'd want her to live. Not simply survive the ordeals she and San have gone through clinging to life, but truly _live._

Vivienne and San, human and titan, man and god, good and evil, light and darkness, life and death.

_Balance._

Distantly the sound that woke Vivienne echoes, and San instinctively recognizes it as a call.

* * *

> **<M. [DATA EXPUNGED], video recording,** ██**-**██**-2020>**
> 
> [Mariko and Rada stand on opposite sides of the door. Someone from outside half-paws half-knocks. Mariko readies her 9mm, demands to know who it is. Answer indistinct. Rada prepares a wrench. Mariko opens the door a crack, gun ready, but opens it fully. Travis enters. Hair and beard are growing out, matted and unkempt. Appears pale and malnourished, bleeding from deep scratches up and down his temples.]
> 
> **Rada:** Fuck happened to you?
> 
> **Travis:** Have to get out.
> 
> **Mariko:** Well, I'm glad we're in agreement for once but... (Sniffs, winces.) Geez, man, when's the last time you bathed? Or slept? Jesus, what happened to your face?
> 
> **Travis:** Kauffman's dead.
> 
> **Mariko:** Kauffman? The one in charge of supplies - what - how did he-?
> 
> **Travis:** Choked himself. Overdosed on pills. Hearing things I couldn't. Popped open some bottles and - (Giggles.) Like a kid with M&Ms! Bottoms up! Kept going till the pills clogged up his throat. Found him in the closet. Melted pills and vomit. Staring at me.
> 
> **Rada:** Shit.
> 
> **Travis:** Kept expecting his dead eyes to follow me like Ghidorah's did. Expecting to hear him m start purring too. Never did. Expected it. Never happened. Staring at me. Not talking. Should have been talking.
> 
> **Mariko:** Travis, you - you're scaring me...
> 
> **Travis:** Are you fucking listening?! The dead are not quiet! They are TALKING! Ghidorah, Asher, Sullivan, that thing that used to be Graham - TALKING! I can hear them now - if I close my eyes I can hear the earth and metal groaning around us, calling, crying out...
> 
> [Rada inches around to stand behind Mariko. Gun is aimed at Travis's leg. Travis rubs the bloody trails on his temples.]
> 
> **Travis:** Something answered - I heard it. And it's coming for us. Do you smell it? Dirt and ozone. One of the old gods is coming - I heard him answer and then Ghidorah looked at me and he knows too - WANTS him to come—
> 
> [Travis cuts himself off and digs trenches in his temples, crying manically.]
> 
> **Travis:** Get out get out get out _getoutgetoutgetoutgetout_
> 
> **Mariko:** Travis!
> 
> [Long pause. Travis takes a moment to collect himself, wipes the blood off on his pants.]
> 
> **Travis:** We can't stay here. But Jonah won't let us leave.
> 
> **Mariko:** Monarch knows there's a Titan running around under the mountains. By the time they find us, this place might be trampled to rubble, and the satellite dish has gone down so I can't contact them even if I wanted to.
> 
> **Travis:** Maybe not. (Produces a key ring from his pocket.) Got this off Kauffman's... they unlock the armory and food storage. Jonah hasn't left the basement. Maybe he won't leave for a while. If somebody were to go outside, kick the dish on...
> 
> **Rada:** Why would you want to help now?
> 
> **Travis:** ...I just want to feel like me again.
> 
> **Mariko:** Well, it's - it's something. Assuming Jonah didn't put you up to this—
> 
> **Travis:** He didn't. I just... no more. I'm _tired._ Just want to sleep and be _me_ again.
> 
> **Rada:** I, uh... I better go.
> 
> **Mariko:** Y-yeah, okay. I'll keep in touch.
> 
> **Travis:** Doctor. I'm not going back downstairs. Don't let me go back downstairs. I'm scared that if I do... it won't be _me_ coming back. Promise you won't let me out of this room. 
> 
> **Mariko:** I'm... not sure I trust you in here with your current... faculties...
> 
> **Travis:** (Voice is small.) Please. Please, promise me. Tie me down if you have to. If I go down there and I come back up again, you take that gun and unload the mag in me. Because the thing that will come back up_ will not be me._
> 
> **Mariko:** Okay... okay...
> 
> **<End recording>**

* * *

There's a draft. It must be from where she pounded the wall some time ago. At first Vivienne thinks that sound she's been hearing lately is just whatever air is breezing through the cracks, creating an acoustic illusion. But San perks up at the sound.

_call._

_From a Titan?_

_maybe. was one sleeping here?_

Considering she doesn't know where 'here' even is, that's a strong possibility. Aren't the cleaners Russian? Perhaps based on that, they're situated somewhere in Russia, or around a border. She recalls her howling grief and grows apprehensive; that Titan must have heard it. The question is, what would it do when it arrives?

The doors open.

* * *

> **<M. [DATA EXPUNGED], video recording,** ██**-**██**-2020>**
> 
> [Mariko enters the chamber. Subject G stares at the damaged wall and tilts it's head. Appears distracted.]
> 
> **Mariko:** Oh... you're looking much better. How are you feeling?
> 
> **Subject G:** ... better.
> 
> **Mariko:** That's good to hear. (Pauses.) Is something the matter?
> 
> **Subject G-1a:** _Not. Its business._
> 
> **Subject G:** It's fine.
> 
> [Long beat.]
> 
> **Mariko:** Can... (Lowers voice.) Can you hear it?
> 
> [Subject G looks over it's shoulder.]
> 
> **<End recording>**

* * *

Mariko lowers her voice, switches to Japanese. "Can you hear the Titan?"

Vivienne glances at San, narrows her eyes at Mariko. "Yes."

"Good. Good... we can use this."

_use what. what is it plotting now?_

_Let's find out and decide for ourselves._

Mariko seems to notice their suspicions if her awkward fiddling with the tablet is anything to go by. Making it look like she's busy, but it's obviously a ploy. Vivienne recalls Madison being a marginally better liar than this.

"None of Jonah's men seem to understand Japanese, so this is just a precaution. As for what I'm doing here, Monarch is aware of the Titan. Or at least, the idea that it might be a Titan. I don't know what the most recent news is - Jonah cut off communication not long after we heard about that. But some of us are preparing for... let's call it a mutiny. One of Jonah's personal guys, Travis, he's in on it, but I'm taking his help with a grain of salt. He's not all there anymore."

Vivienne quirks her brows up. Why would that be? Cabin fever? Unless...

Mariko continues, interrupting her thoughts.

"Anyway. We still need to form a proper plan of action. Right now the idea is to have one of the refugees kick communications back on long enough for us to get a signal out and contact Monarch. They're already doing an investigation, so it shouldn't take long. Could be days or weeks. I don't know. Now, this is where you come in. If you can hear the Titan, can you answer it?"

Vivienne and San exchange looks.

_Can we?_

_you cried out. it heard. call. it may answer._

She settles on, "Possibly."

"That's good enough," Mariko nods to herself, raises the tablet to pantomime a scan. "A hitherto unknown Titan coming in for a chat, making some noise, maybe making his grand debut ought to send our friends at Monarch running in. We, the human side of things - uh, no offense... but if you can take care of the Titan half of the equation, we can handle the rest."

"The refugees?" Vivienne inquires.

Mariko gnaws on her lip, probably reminded of that furious reaction to the deaths she caused by helping Behemoth escape. "I'm... going to run it by them. See who wants to help and what they can do. If they don't want to play along, I won't blame them. All I can do is my best."

San rasps at her. _"Some-times. The best. Is. Not en-ough."_

Vivienne shuts her eyes, tries not to think about bodies in the snow and fails. Don't make a promise if you don't know you can keep it.

Mariko gives San a surprised look, considers his words. Her expression falls and she slumps in resignation. "I know," she sighs.

* * *

**<M. [DATA EXPUNGED], mobile recording 3>**

Seeing as Jonah is next to impossible to get a hold of and I don't feel like catching the Basement Crazy, I had to tell Tejada about Kauffman's death. She and ████ are really upset about it... I guess they were friends of his. Only told them what they needed to know, gave them his dog tags. Now they have to decide who's going to take up supply duties after Kauffman's body is cleaned up and given a burial - Zima's going to use that time to reach the satellite and hold up there until it's go time.

Thank god two of the refugees have some military experience. With some input from Travis, when he's mentally sound, they're helping us plan our course of action. They've considered things I never thought of. Everything from code words to who in Jonah's group is going to take Kauffman's place, when the next supply run is, how we're going to take control of weapons and food, where non-combatants are going to be safest, fortifications in case Jonah figures us out... and he might... where we can hold up for an extended period until the cavalry arrives, however long that'll take... guess all I really have to do is blow the whistle on this hellhole. Just have to wait for Graham.

I didn't realize how many kids we took in. Most of them are spooked by Graham - or _Baba Yaga_ as Rada calls her - but a few of them are curious. I wish I understood more Russian beyond _suka_ because Zima tells me they want to know why "the monster sounds so sad". Have a feeling they're gonna grow up to be Monarch material... kind of like Emma's daughter, or that Brody kid...

[Mariko is barely seen rubbing her scars.]

I've been thinking about what Subject G-1a - screw it, Eddie the Head. What he said. Never expected him to drop a pearl of wisdom like that. "Sometimes the best is not enough." I think we can all relate to that...

**<End recording>**

* * *

calling one of the earthbound the ones sister calls titans calling them is easy he knows the notes the pitch the tone he knows how to call to arms how to summon how to reawaken how to talk to them like little ones talk to little ones but differences too pheromones in the air lights from inside he can teach sister sounds so low the little ones can't hear but they can feel them he can teach sister how to roar and click and rumble and call and talk just as she teaches him runes and tells him stories

...

Vivienne has her ear to the wall. Does she even have ears anymore? Ear-holes then. It makes her uncomfortable, reminds her of what Langley had told her about a frozen colossus. God, that seems so long ago. Don't think about it. Listen for anything; shifts in the air, or metal groaning. San clicks at her, wanting her attention.

_What is it?_

_teach. i can teach you._

There's an inviting pull at the back of her neck like a tickle, rather like just before they saw into each other's mind. San's inviting her to... come into him. She's not sure she could describe the feeling to another. She accepts the invitation with only brief hesitation - she recalls how overwhelming his heightened senses are compared to hers. Vivienne blinks and - _oh!_ \- she can see. _Really_ see! She can see some kind of light weakly streaming throughout her arm, in her veins, hear the click-thump-click-thump of boots outside the chamber, indistinct chatter, metal scraping somewhere, their two hearts drumming... she glances at the active barrier and is briefly hypnotized by how... kaleidoscopic and _luminous_ it is...

_sister. focus._

_focusFOCUSthelightFOCUSavoicethereisa V O I C E_

San snaps their eyes shut, holds their breath, tunes out everything around them, and now... silence. There's a tingle in their fingertips - she _hears_ that. San turns their head back to the crater in the wall and Vivienne can catch wind; it would be inaudible to human ears, but she hears the gentle near-silent whistles as though someone were pursing their lips while blowing air. And then—

_hear it?_

_Yes._

A low thrum. Soft rhythmic quakes, a giant tip-toeing through the earth. Ear is pressed to the cracks, the sound like marble cracking. Something - _ooooaaaaaa_ \- like... crowing or howling or wailing - _ooooaaaaaAAAAA_ \- is that worry in the tone? _oooooaaaAAAAAAAaaaaaa..._

_yes. worry. but now we can answer. _

They inhale deeply. Tail lifts. Air vibrates in their throat as sound escapes, low at first but building and rising up, awkward and raspy. The walls vibrate under their claws. Still not enough. A stutter in breath, then they bellow into a higher atonal pitch—

_huuuuuuwaaaaaarrrrrrAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRHHHH_

She can actually hear the differences between her voice and San's - hers going rough as it used to back when she yelled as a human, San's strangely lyrical wail - fusing at the end into something like throat singing. The sound punches through the walls, bouncing off what surfaces lay beyond and into the unknown horizon, if there even is one.

There is a pause that lasts only moments but could span for an eternity.

More distant quakes; frantic. Then, gently:

_ooooooooooooooOOOOOOOO_

Breathy now. Almost questioning. She can imagine a voice asking, _'Is that you? Are you out there? Can you hear me?'_ The answer must be delivered. They try to imitate the call with a desperation as if the notes will burn their tongue if held back, but the result is more like human-song with little jumps. A response comes faster. Still and controlled like the wind.

It's nothing like the harsh, deep-throated vocalizations she remembers the frozen Ghidorah making to frighten and get under her skin. It reminds her of kulning. She catches the sound elevating into a smooth crescendo then transitions into a series of trills or bleats, slides seamlessly into a long note. It's mesmerizing. The vibrations grow in frequency and intensity; the source of the call draws closer. Her bones come alive; she knows this feeling - numinous! The exact same thing she felt in Godzilla's presence! An old god comes near, and it is _calling_ them! _Talking_ with them!

Tears well up in her eyes and her spirit soars - she and San copy the call as best they can, Vivienne pouring into every cry: _'I can _hear _you! I can _understand_ you!'_

* * *

> **<M. [DATA EXPUNGED], video recording,** ██**-**██**-2020>**
> 
> [Mariko's quarters. Travis is sitting still while Mariko treats his self-inflicted injuries. A low, muffled roar is heard. Travis looks up.]
> 
> **Travis:** That's her.
> 
> [Mariko also stops to listen. A long pause. The roar sounds again with more cadence and rhythm. Both just stand and listen, seemingly entranced.]
> 
> **Mariko:** It's like a song...
> 
> **Travis:** Sounds like earth and wind.
> 
> **Mariko:** I think this is our cue.
> 
> **<End recording>**

* * *

The child's cry is not what was expected. There are two voices - and in one is the laughter of the Enemy, the One Who Is Many, That Which Came From the Stars. Stop. Outrage and confusion. Bait waking him from his self-imposed exile and slumber? But the other is like the Little Ones. And something is strange in the Enemy's voice... only one of the Three, and it seems to be guiding and encouraging the child.

No words in the cry. A primal and desperate scream. He recognizes that yes, this is the same voice that woke him. The Enemy's wailing, alien war-song stirred him but he stubbornly refused to answer - even when the thing first roosted he knew his power is similar in nature to the Enemy's and he would not make the beast stronger, accidentally or otherwise. But the mad cries from before woke him up. They were the heart-rending keens of one who lost a mate, or parent or cub or kin. Then for a time, silence. That could have meant death, and so he called out in his journey, _'Where are you? Who are you? Tell me where you are!'_

** _O T O S A N_ **

The words in those screams had been meaningless to him. But here they are again - screaming in response to his call. Now it is unmistakable: the child is like the Little Ones. But... also of the Enemy? Is that even possible? Something wafts through his stone mask into his nose - pheromones! He remembers the scent - this strange child has the blood of Grave Chanters, of Those Who Speak to the Spirits! He calls out again and receives an answer:

_Little One! Is that you?_

_...can hear...! I... understand y...!_

The Little One is crying, but it is a joyful sound. Paternal instinct stirs to life and he croons to the distant voice in an attempt to calm her... him? Them? The child can explain when he finds her. Amusingly, the Little One mimics his calm-song. She must be learning to sing like him and the others! Spirits lifted, he increases his pace and follows the earthy tones of her voice.

_I'm coming!_

* * *

> **<Security footage, observation chamber,** ██**-**██**-2020>**
> 
> [████ and Tejada are playing cards. Mariko enters and begins the usual business, Tejada inviting her to play. ████ mechanically shuffles the cards.]
> 
> **Mariko:** I'm sorry about Kauffman.
> 
> **Tejada:** Thanks. But... (Sighs.) Something about it bothers me. I mean, Kauffman never kept his problems a secret. We could've helped, or done something. Why didn't he say anything? He was like an open book until...
> 
> [Beat.]
> 
> **Tejada:** You said Travis found his body, right? Did he say anything?
> 
> **Mariko:** Just... something about Kauffman hearing voices? Hallucinations? Travis was really freaking me out at the time, so...
> 
> **Tejada:** Shit. Oh, shit. ████, I think you were right about the head. I remember the day it choked out that thing. Sullivan and me swapped places and that's what saved me. We saw the eyes following us and heard it purring. Graham's notes talked about how people were going nuts around it but I figured "this yahoo worships a nuclear dinosaur thing like a god, she's full of shit". But what if she was right, and the head was... _talking_ to him?
> 
> ████**:** Okay, but then why the fuck would Jonah stay near it for so long if he knows about that? He and Travis didn't even show up to say anything. I do not like this. I did not sign up for shit like this! How many more of my friends have to die before Jonah decides we should know what the hell's going on?!
> 
> **Mariko:** Oh... speak of the devil. Look. Care for a little eavesdropping?
> 
> **<End recording>**

* * *

The unknown Titan calls them again; he (they get the feeling it's male) seems much closer now. Vivienne and San enjoy their "talks" with this stranger. Whenever they hear and feel the calls, it's as if something about the Titan's character reveals itself to them. For the most part, the Titan seems protective and almost... fatherly. It makes Vivienne's hearts ache, but San doesn't seem to have, or recall having, a paternal figure himself. Something else they have in common.

They're about to respond when the doors open. Vivienne looks over her shoulder and inhales sharply.

_Jonah._

Has he caught wind of Mariko's plot?

_San. If_ _ he asks us about the plan or the Titan, we are not telling him anything._

_not. a word._

Good. Jonah approaches and Vivienne squints; his receding white hair and beard seem to be growing out. What if he doesn't know? Except for a holstered pistol he's completely unarmed. No armed guards, no protective equipment, no barrels of meat and water. Vivienne doesn't know what to expect. Jonah's eyes flicked to the carved runes on the wall behind her, then back to her. He sighs.

"I had hoped..." he trails off. _"Thought._ I'd thought... you would see the way I do. Loss brings a sort of clarity. Have you lost anyone before Serizawa? I suppose you wouldn't know what losing a child is like. I had a daughter once. Lindy." Something in Jonah's face changes, like Vivienne is seeing a ghost of the man he used to be. A different Jonah, from a brighter time in his life. "During my army days, she was walking home from school. It was a safer time. Or so I thought. By the time I returned, she was found stuffed into a storm drain. No one found out who did it. What kind of person does that, do you think? What kind of society allows something like that to happen? Emma understood."

Vivienne vaguely recalls reading about that in Jonah's dossier. A terrible thing. There's a pang of sympathy in her chest, but she squashes it down. Losing a child does not excuse or justify orchestrating the end of the world. How many others have lost their children since Antarctica? Their homes? Their entire lives? Is this how he got Emma into his clutches, playing on her own loss of Andrew? Vivienne recalls the transmitted image of Emma pressing the button to detonate planted explosives and wonders if she knew Vivienne would die that night. If she agonized over the choices she was about to make or just made up her mind and decided nothing else mattered.

Jonah continues. "I hated the endless platitudes and empty sympathies. Couldn't go a day without being reminded my daughter is gone. People kept telling me how sorry they were for my loss but I could see it in their eyes. How they really felt. 'Thank goodness it wasn't my child,' 'I would never let something like that happen to my baby,' 'If you weren't away this wouldn't have happened.' Happy people like that, they're satisfied with the world. They think they're being kind but it's a sort of cruelty. They don't understand the way people who have suffered do. The things you've gone through? I had hoped it would let you see."

Is... was this the reason...? Ah. She sees, but not the way Jonah would want. All of this was meant to break her down, remake her into something Jonah can use; a tool. Maybe to finish what Ghidorah started. Vivienne bares her teeth defiantly and San snarls.

"We will not be your cudgel."

Jonah sighs again.

"I'm sorry. I know it sounds hard to believe. But you see, this is all going to be worth it in the end. What we've done to you... pain is simply human weakness being exorcised. I've heard it said that suffering can bring wisdom and even enlightenment."

Vivienne chuffs. If that's true, she must be very wise indeed by now. 

"I've looked through what research notes of yours that survived Antarctica, and I hope you realize just how right you were about the Titans." Here Vivienne's brow furrows and she glances at Jonah. "With regards to your belief that the Titans are essential to our species, I mean. That balance you and Serizawa were always going on about - I understand it now. You see, I... well, I've experienced a form of enlightenment myself recently. But, just between us, it's been going on for much longer. Thanks to that, I've figured it out. Have you?"

Jonah steps closer; now she can see his features more clearly. The man's always been a 'lean and mean' type of figure, but he looks... hungry. There's a wild glint in his usually dead shark eyes - has she seen this before? When Jonah smiles it feels more like a grimace. 

"You are a fusion of Man and Titan. You have become the key to true balance, the progenitor of a new species to rule a new world... the way this world is _meant_ to be. Wipe the slate clean and begin again."

Now he has her undivided attention, plus a growing knot in her gut. This doesn't sound like Alan Jonah the former British Army Colonel turned misanthropic eco-terrorist, obsessed with restoring the natural order, who once declared "man is the real monster". Where is this new attitude coming from? Vivienne blinks but grows frustrated when her vision fragments or blurs. San chitters at her back - _bad feeling. very bad feeling. sister you are seeing things again._ \- and there it is again, that vague not-really-there shadow in the chamber corner, just outside her peripheral.

_where are you looking? what do you see?_

_It's nothing. It's not real. Jonah's real. Focus._

"I know you understand me," Jonah continues. He steps closer and for some reason there's a chill creeping under her skin - not real, focus. "You've heard it."

What does he...

_"Have you heard it too?"_

_"Heard it?"_

_"It_ _talks."_

...oh... _fuck..._

"What an odd duck you were, Doctor. Hearing things so very few people can, reading fossils like a book, but it's no psychosis or hallucination. You are an old soul. You've got the old blood - shaman, soothsayer, druid, whichever you like. You hear the old gods, and they _talked_ to you."

_something is. very wrong._

_It's just a trick. Don't listen. What's wrong with his skin? Stop staring. Why did you listen to Langley then? Why did you lean against the ice listening for sounds entire millennia away when its call felt so _wrong?_ It's watching. Don't look up. Don't look at it! WHY DID YOU LOOK? Run, get out of there, the passage stretches across the world the stairs into the sky, DON'T LOOK UP YOU'LL DIE IF YOU LOOK UP everyone's worried now they're asking but it's gibberish can't hear over the slithering and hissing read their lips and hope to god their tongues don't split at the ends. "Are you alright, Dr. Graham?" Just nod your head and get out. Keep it together long enough to contact Serizawa and try not to turn into a little girl crying for daddy _

_"Vivienne? What's wrong?" Serizawa leans in. "What happened?"_

_Try to answer but the words die. Later he tells you your eye went completely red like a blood vessel burst right when you said, "I think there's something wrong with me." Something very wrong. Why didn't you tell him? You were scared it would happen to him like you're contagious. Should have written it off as a psychotic break and never went back. IT'S NOT HUMAN. Spent an entire week looking at distortions in little nooks and crannies, recurring nightmares, HEARING ITS VOICES CALLING ME_

_sister? come back. you're scaring me._

Vivienne struggles to control her breathing, to anchor herself in the here and now. Jonah's face is the rictus grin of the dead. It looks like some unseen hand is pulling the skin to the back of his head and tightening it around his skull.

"You hear it too," she manages a whisper, not trusting herself to keep from screaming. Jonah gives her the slightest of nods. "Jonah. If there's any humanity in you, if you care for your men... get them away from it. For god's sake. Keep them away from it!"

"And then what? Follow your example and run like prey when it returns to the world? No. I have no intention to die like you."

Jesus, what is this man's endgame? What the hell happened to him - what did that rotting dracolich, wherever they're keeping it, do to him? Vivienne's head throbs with conflicting bafflement and terror at the implication that whatever happened at Outpost 32 is happening again here. Suddenly San croaks at Jonah.

_"Ash."_

There's a long pause. For a moment Jonah doesn't look so corpse-like anymore. He looks more like himself as he fixes his dead shark eyes on San's vestigial head.

"How does it know that name." His voice is hushed.

_"Saw it. Through the ice. Son. Ash dies. Fa-ther... lives."_

Vivienne wracks her brain and realizes - Ash. That's the name of the man who was killed just before Ghidorah's awakening. San recalls the memory for her; the young man named Ash had taken point, making him an easy target for a sniper while ensuring that Jonah and his captives remain unharmed. Was that man like a son to Jonah? Vivienne sees where San's going with this. Clever boy. Despite herself, she feels her muscles forming a smirk. See how the old man likes it.

"Did Ash know you let him die?"

Jonah's nostrils flare and his shoulders go rigid. "What did you say?"

"Did. Ash. Know. You let him. Die?"

"He _knew_ the dangers," Jonah snarls. This is probably the most emotion he's expressed that isn't arrogance. "We both _knew._ A soldier has no illusions about—"

"Did you stop and think, maybe have someone else take point? Someone who isn't like your own family? A real father would trust his son's abilities, but still do what he can to help him. I would have risked my life to save someone. I _died_ saving someone."

"Congratulations, you're a hero," Jonah's voice drips with contempt.

San's face twists into a hateful scowl. _"And you. Are a cow-ard."_

"What did that thing—"

Vivienne doesn't let up. "You said Madison escaped with the ORCA. Remember that? So how did Emma get out? Did she help Madison, or..."

"That has nothing to do with this." Jonah's fists are trembling.

This time Vivienne and San both demand in unison, _"How did she get out?"_

Jonah breathes harshly through his nose. Vivienne wonders if anyone has gotten this deep under his skin before. She feels a twisted sort of pride in this accomplishment but can't tell if it's hers or San's. It feels good to have some sense of agency again. They feel stronger for it. Jonah takes a deep breath before answering.

"Emma prepared a Humvee to find Madison in Boston. Since my men refused to cooperate, she held me at gunpoint."

_"And?"_

"...I let her go."

Vivienne chuckles dryly. Oh, how the pieces come together. "Imagine that." She gives San a wry look. "Hardened mercenaries against one scientist. Tell us, _Colonel,_ did you think your men wouldn't fire fast enough before she took the shot?"

_"Would you. Have sacri-ficed one of your own. To keep your-self. A-live?"_

"This discussion is over. Command, open the doors." Jonah turns on his heel and makes for the doors like a man on a mission (or perhaps to save face on camera), but stops when a low mechanical straining groans through the chamber walls. The lights flicker. Dust falls from the ceiling and a subtle vibration reverberates under their feet. Oh, she remembers something like this some years ago in Janjira, recalls the frantic words of a man who, had things been different, could have been a colleague in Monarch...

_"That is not a transformer malfunction. It is an electromagnetic pulse. It affects everything electrical for miles and miles and it is happening again. This is what caused everything in the first place. Don't you see that?! AND IT IS GONNA SEND US BACK TO THE STONE AGE!"_

* * *

> **<Security footage, observation chamber,** ██**-**██**-2020>**
> 
> [Mariko, Tejada and ████ listen intently, occasionally murmuring comments to each other.]
> 
> **Subject G:** _...if you care for your men... get them away from it. For god's sake. Keep them away from it!_
> 
> **Jonah:** _And then what? Follow your example and run like prey when it returns to the world? No. I have no intention to die like you._
> 
> **Tejada:** What about the men? Doesn't he give a shit about them?
> 
> [Beat. Subject G-1a is heard mentioning one "Ash". A tense conversation ensues. Mariko glances between ████ and Tejada.]
> 
> **Mariko:** About Ash. Is that all true?
> 
> ████: Yeah. Ash and Jonah were close. Looked up to the old man like he was his father. Wanted his approval. I just assumed he took point 'cause Jonah trusted him...
> 
> **Subject G-1a:** _Would you. Have sacrificed one of your own. To keep yourself. Alive?_
> 
> **Jonah:** _This discussion is over. Command, open the doors._
> 
> ████: The hell I will.
> 
> [Visual tearing. The lights flicker.]
> 
> **<End recording>**

* * *

"Command?" Jonah demands.

The intercom crackles, a voice coming through. _"There, uh... there seems to be a problem with the doors..."_

Vivienne approaches the barrier, feeling the vibrations slowly increase in frequency and intensity. She hears the call more clearly than before, more insistent. One hand reaches out and hovers before the barrier, feeling the electric hum and static tickle the tips of her claws. Soon. Very soon, now.

"Did you think us defeated?" she asks. "Broken down to be your tool?"

Jonah pulls out a walkie and briskly sends orders to the security outside. Weapons ready, just in case.

"Did you think yourself like Odin, all-seeing and all-knowing? Binding us like Fenrir, foretold to bring about great destruction at the time of Ragnarök?"

Jonah addresses the intercom again. "Command, open this door."

Static squeals overhead.

Vivienne continues, now trailing a claw so close to the barrier that sparks dance and form brief shapes. "For all his wisdom and insight and knowledge, did it ever occur to Odin that by binding the wolf he was only creating a self-fulfilling prophecy? Fenrir’s sons will devour the sun and moon, Gleipnir will break, and Fenrir will have his vengeance on Odin."

A tremor like a thunderous drum beat shakes the chamber. Now the barrier flickers. The call's tone changes, less paternal and comforting, more like a warrior's growl. Jonah glances around the place before diverting his attention to the doors; he can hear it now too. He must realize by now the trap he's put himself in - of course, Vivienne and San hadn't accounted for the call's source to come so quickly, but they won't refuse an unexpected rescue. The barrier flares, clinging desperately for dear life, and she presses her hand fully against it. Sparks fly and electricity scorches her palm, but unlike that first time she holds fast. Her veins pulse with light.

"This fetter will break..."

Jonah bellows, "GET THIS GODDAMN DOOR OPEN NOW!"

There's a deafening metal cacophony and the doors snap open - barely enough for a man to fit through - and the power dies, leaving the chamber in pitch blackness. Vivienne takes the first step over a threshold that's kept her and San prisoner for so long. Soon red emergency lights illuminate the control room above, filtering into the chamber. She can just see Jonah's face in the dim red light, one of his mercenaries reaching through the gap to grab him but freezing at her approaching form. How must she and San look to them? The red silhouette of a demon lurching forward? The titan-spawn they thought they could learn to control? Mortal terror is visible on the merc's face. Good, good, _good._

The beast is free.

She's now close enough to reach out and grab Jonah. He's yanking on the mercenary, trying to pull him inside while the other struggles to drag him out. He loses whatever composure he had before, whimpering and now pushing himself into the door as if trying to fuse with it just to escape her, gripped by primitive fear.

"Oh god, please, please, please don't kill me," the man's voice is quiet but high-pitched, by now his upper torso completely inside. "Let me go, let me go - _please_ \- I didn't do anything, not to you or the others—"

Vivienne stops.

"What... others?"

Before the guard can respond a hole pops through his head. Vivienne blinks as the man is unceremoniously dropped to the floor, choking for breath and staring at her with wide teary eyes; San notices the smell of a fired gun. The guard soon goes silent. Her mind is going a mile a minute. Others...

Jonah is invested in the Titan DNA market, so naturally he would keep his buyers supplied with samples from a perpetually regenerating Titan head, albeit an alien one. But 'others' implies test subjects like her and San. What sort of tests would be performed? Where would he be keeping them, and where could he have gotten them—

_refugees?_ San suggests. _like the cleaners?_

The realization is like a kick in the teeth.

Her head turns to Jonah. If her expression is anything to go by, Jonah knows he was too late in silencing that guard.

"What did you _do?"_ She demands, voice hushed in vague horror.

_door!_ San reports hurriedly. _the doors!_

She lunges but Jonah manages to slip through, leaving her claws to flail and curl uselessly in the gap. Shouts of the men outside reach her ears and an opening salvo punches into her tips and knuckles, so she pulls back and slumps to the side so bullets fire harmlessly into the door and through the gap. But fear of pain is no longer a concern. Her hearts pound like a war drum, blood boiling and roaring through her veins, carrying a static tingle with it and her limbs burn hot.

_Jonah..._ that miserable old snake... that son of a _bitch..._ bad enough to torture her and San at their weakest, to use her love for Serizawa and his death to break her like an animal, use the torment to mold her grief into hate and become a cudgel for him to thrash the world with! But to do the same to others? To innocent people who lost everything to forces beyond comprehension, to survive the end of the world only to suffer such cruelty?! And to what end?! Hatred rushes through her in a blinding red flood, but it is not by Jonah's design. This is _her_ hate and rage!

Something like static or electrical interference screams in her brain, rising and falling in volume, traces of a voice through the noise. She looks down and sees her arms pulsing with light, like how Godzilla or Ghidorah would flare just before unleashing their power. Electricity actually sparks from finger to finger, trailing up her claws.

_the storm!_ San is in awe. _you woke the storm!_

So that was the key to the storm all along. Ghidorah was wealthy in it, not just in the gold scales that conduct it, but a fundamental element Vivienne lacked until now.

_Hate._

She feels like a magnet or lightning rod. Power surges through her - through them. The chronic pain that's plagued them for so long feels drowned out, carried away by electrical currents. It feels good, _so good._ Too good. She cracks their tail like a whip, rolls and flexes stringy muscles. The malformed, diseased bone matter taking over their body can be armor! Their teeth spears! Their claws axes the storm a divine arrow their voices a roar of war—

Vivienne rushes and forces the doors open, gathering all her strength to push them apart in a large enough entry for her and San. A storm of .50 caliber and anti-tank rounds pound into her flesh; San alerts her and she turns her head just in time to catch a rocket in her jaws, the ensuing explosion doing little beyond annoying her. An onslaught like this would have bested them once, but now they can do more than simply soak up the damage.

Their body crackles with newfound power, rising, overflowing - _the heat!_ It scorches the blood, exacerbating the rage, sets their body ablaze, blinding! 

They roar as one and the place explodes with light. They can feel equipment and appliances surging with power, overloading. Lights crack to blinding levels through their presence alone. The mercenaries and their weapons, _their toys_, evaporated into ash as though smote by a god - and are they not a god?! Are they not fury and the storm made flesh?! They are wrath and ruin, vengeance incarnate, a scourge released! Spawn of the Dragon! Devil and Man as one! Every fiber and cell is an inferno baying for blood, the hunt, the kill! These puny, _temporary,_ vain _insects_ thought themselves cold and without mercy - but _THEY_ are a nightmare made manifest! 

Their body screams and they charge, the cramped hallways only slowing progress, stalking their prey.

A roar shakes the base to its foundation, reverberating in the bone marrow of all inside. There is no wailing laughter in the sound, only draconic fury with traces of an all too human scream. This is a roar of such anger and hate, man and monster in its nature, that it chills the blood to ice. Every radio and intercom screeches to ear-splitting life, the roar carried on its waves, the electric squealing giving way to a voice that's two voices, a demon screaming in feral, uncontrolled bloodlust—

_**"JONAH!** YOU **WILL** SHOW US WHAT YOU'VE BEEN HIDING! THEN WE WILL **FEAST** ON YOUR **BONES!"**_

* * *

> **<Security footage, observation chamber,** ██**-**██**-2020>**
> 
> [Emergency lights turn on. Klaxons sound off. Visuals tear, blip on and off. Audio distortions.]
> 
> **Tejada:** Jesus... look how big she's grown...
> 
> [Indistinct talking.]
> 
> ████: Did I hear that right? Others?
> 
> **Mariko:** Oh my god. Oh my god, what if he means the missing refugees—
> 
> [Muffled gunshot. Stunned silence.]
> 
> **Subject G:** _What did you do?_
> 
> ████: He didn't. He fucking didn't!
> 
> **Tejada:** Dude, whatever you're gonna do...
> 
> [Muffled gunfire. Massive burst of distortion.]
> 
> ████: I'm not letting that son of a bitch disappear again!
> 
> **Mariko:** No, wait-! WAIT!
> 
> [Footsteps running. Metal door opens, gunfire slightly louder. Visuals flare back on, tearing severely, observation room illuminated by blinding light. Mariko holds Tejada back while she repeatedly calls ████'s name. Audio distortions; monstrous screeching. Intercom screams. Chairs vibrate and topple with the force of rapid quakes.]
> 
> **Mariko:** We need to move, now!
> 
> **Tejada:** You're not going anywhere without me - not till you tell me what the fuck is going on—
> 
> **Mariko:** Then run and talk! Let's GO!
> 
> **<End recording>**

* * *

sister is angry so angry TOO angry fear is gone so much rage and hate she woke the storm but she is blood drunk can't control it she doesn't know how can't see can't think through the haze no no no come back control yourself please rage is a tool not a sickness do not let it consume something is wrong it hurts need to stop must stop call the titan call the titan something is wrong with us vivienne please come back

...

_RIP AND TEAR RIP AND TEAR RIP AND TEAR HATE YOU KILL YOU HATE YOU KILL YOU **HATE** KILL_

Foam bubbles in their mouth. Blood roars and thunders in their ears. Red haze consumes the mind.

_KILL YOU KILL YOU KILL YOU **KILL YOU**_

The prey is just ahead. Close, so close. Blast it from here. No, not yet. Follow. See what it hides. Then kill. Crush underfoot, grind to paste, paint the walls _RIP TEAR_ break apart pull apart with claws drink the blood gnash the bones _RIP AND TEAR_ gnaw the meat crush stomp kill destroy hear the screams yes _yes yes YES **YES**_

Body's burning on fire _hurts! the hurt is back!_ not important ignore it keep going can't escape will not escape us _HE WILL NEVER ESCAPE US_ that wretch that coward that hypocrite _HATE HIM KILL HIM_ almost there we're catching up _wait! something wrong!_ no time to wait can't let him escape _wait! wait! WAIT!_

Everything stops - the mind, the body, metal, earth, the world - and liquid geysers up the esophagus, can't contain it, vomits it out in a black spray. Burns the throat. Smells like cooked blood. Stop. Stumble. Catches themselves. Hurts to breathe. More comes up like bile, dripping from the mouth and nose. Hot, so hot. Blood bubbling. Burning. _DON'T LET HIM ESCAPE._ Lights die all over. Voices all over. Radio in the head. 

—power's out - can't get a signal - contact the outside - where the hell is Mari—!

She cradles her throbbing skull but her fingers are scorching hot, bubbling hot. Insides are on fire.

_sister? are you here?_

_I'm... I'm here..._

_are you HERE? are you YOURSELF?_

_I don't know._

_scared. don't know what's happening._

Steam rises from the pores, the mouth, the nose. So, so hot. It hurts. She tries to talk but her lungs are fit to bursting, steam belching from her throat. Even the cool, sterile air around them is like acid going down. So much pain - never imagined it could get worse but it is. So bad it goes right back around again to numbness. Brain can't even register it.

_I think someone's trying to contact Monarch._

_they are. can't. no power._

_Might be backup generators. Unless they're too old to work._

_we have storm inside. have power. but._

_But?_

_hurts to use it._

It does. She feels so sluggish now. Think, focus. The 'storm' must have caused an averse reaction to her human parts, what little of those she still has left. A human body can't handle this much internal heat; it's like she's being microwaved from the inside-out. Storm. Plasma. More voices - desperate to find generators, but dangers all over, armed mercenaries and a rampaging Titan. They probably can't make it to any generators. Although...

_We could be a generator._

_yes. we can. but... hurts. burning up inside. keeps hurting worse and worse. scared. are we dying?_

I don't know. She honestly doesn't know if they're even capable of dying anymore. Even if they were, who would know beyond the walls of this facility? If any of the refugees die here, who will know? Everyone here could die, nameless and alone, relations and ties forgotten, accomplishments meaningless. For a time Vivienne had thought she didn't care whether she lived or died anymore. But the people here... the approaching Titan calling her and San... the slightest chance is all they need, if not for themselves, then for the people. San catches her thoughts and whimpers. He understands the logic, but...

_i'm scared._

_I know. I'm here, brother._

_why help them? not enemies. not allies. never helped us. why should we help them?_

Vivienne hears ice cracking and metal groaning, sees a man pinned by debris. She could've left Mark behind that night and no one would have blamed her for it. So many times throughout history, self-preservation won the day. But even in those final moments, Vivienne knew that leaving someone behind - abandoning them - was not her way. Even now that rings true. She is no soldier, warrior, or hero. But she is also no bystander. She would never forgive herself for it.

_That is my nature._

_i know. but. don't want to die. i'm scared. i don't want to die!_

_We're not going to die. You remember that story I told you, about Odin and the runes?_

_yes._

_He didn't die. It wasn't his time to die. That was a sacrifice, and sacrifice has purpose._

_what purpose?_

_Could be anything. We might gain knowledge like he did. The people here can draw attention and get out. Ensure that others survive._

_like serizawa._

Even through the blinding, numbing pain searing them, their hearts ache at the thought of him.

_Yes... yes. Just like Serizawa. But I know you're scared. We don't have to do anything. I won't do anything if you don't want to._

_scared. yes. but... if we don't die. bone singer. necessary to die to be born again. what if..._

She waits. Damn the pain. She's not doing anything without San's consent. He opens his mind for her. All his fear and anxieties and what-ifs, and through it all lies a seed that was planted by a human tens of thousands of years ago; the idea that even a final death that ends one mortal life is not the end of the eternal soul. They are not a fully-formed spawn of Ghidorah's species, but they're close enough, and that brings a chance.

_ready._

A call reverberates through metal and bone, a quake rocking the facility to its foundations, heralding the unknown Titan's presence. He, whoever he is, doesn't know about the people. He responds only to her and San. No, _they_ have to do this. Give the people their chance, give Monarch the awareness they need to investigate, deny Jonah his plaything and throw a wrench into his machinations. Besides... how does the phrase go? When a building's foundation is flawed, it must be broken down to begin anew?

They support themselves up, claws digging into the metal walls, feel the wires and conduits and connections.

_sister..._

_I'm here, San. Always. I promise._

Even death won't keep them apart. Plasma builds inside them, burning brighter and hotter until their nerve endings are fried.

_focus—_

_And release!_

They give a cry and the world goes white.

* * *

> **<Communications, surveillance footage,** ██**-**██**-2020>**
> 
> [Severe visual tearing.]
> 
> **Rada:** Power's back on!
> 
> [Mariko and Tejada charge in. Refugees train their weapons on Tejada while Mariko makes for the radio. Subject G roars over intercom; audio distorts into static. Travis is heard wailing.]
> 
> **Refugee:** Now! NOW!
> 
> **Mariko:** This is Monarch Outpost ██ in ████████████, Russia! A new Titan is rampaging through the base and another is on its way! We have civilians... (audio distortions) ...mediate evac! Repeat! This is Monarch Outpost—
> 
> [Video cuts out.]
> 
> **<End recording>**

* * *

Something bursts, punches through from the inside-out like cannon fire and blasts all the air from their lungs. Their wailing roar becomes a wet gurgle. Vivienne looks down and sees a massive splatter of oily black blood, chunks of pulsating fleshy matter and scattered bone fragments. In almost morbid curiosity she feels for her center of mass, feels a hollow cavity where skin, muscle, and organs should be. Vision blurs. Is that her vision going red, or the emergency lights? Her strength gives out and she collapses onto the gore.

A desperate, impossibly deep yowl just beyond the wall. Ah. There he is.

She tries to answer but only produces short gasps of voiceless air. San wails from her back.

Some sort of explosion bursts through, great clouds of dust choking the air and chunks of metal flying. An immense paw or hand, armored with something like stone pulls back through the newly created hole. Breath from outside clears the air. A smell like earth and ozone hits her nose. A large electric blue eye peers in, scanning. The Titan croons at them.

_Little One...?_

San croaks weakly. _help! must help her!_

The eye disappears and the hand returns - a clunky, cylindrical stone gauntlet - reaches for them. As gingerly as he can, the Titan curls his fingers around them. So warm. Her eyes droop, suddenly overwhelmed by a bone-deep tiredness, every inch of her feeling like the weight of the world presses down. So, so tired. The gauntlet moves them. The warmth pulls away and breath blows onto them. She cracks her eyes open to blearily look at the Titan. From the winking light of the hallway, she can make out a wild red mane and curling horns, hints of a mask. Large enough to cradle her like a child. The Titan takes a whiff of them and then his eyes flash, growling threateningly.

_PARASITE!_

_no! please! must help sister!_

_I SHOULD KILL YOU!_

The exchange of ear-blasting roars and helpless cries makes her head throb. She has to get the Titan's attention. Vivienne opens her mouth, that alone feeling like a Herculean task, and sinks her teeth into the closest, softest flesh available. A surprised grunt. She rasps and growls and huffs between the leathery hide in her teeth, angles her eyes to meet the pale blue lights. It's getting hard to breathe.

_He's... part of me... saved me._

The Titan snarls, showing hints of ape-like teeth under the stone mask. _Enemy._ The word thrums into her. She squeezes her jaws tighter.

_Not leaving without him... all I have left. My brother._

The Titan gives her a hard look. Then he sniffs again, his other hand reaching for what's left of their torso. Vivienne's jaws slacken and she slumps against the Titan. He rumbles thoughtfully, decisively. Exhaustion takes its toll. The sleep that's eluded her for so long has finally caught up. Keeping her eyes open becomes impossible. 

_San...?_

_taking us. away. to see her. life bringer. very... very tired..._

She feels the Titan hold them close and start moving. Wailing klaxons die. Heart thumps by her head.

_Rest now... here... 'm here... promise..._

* * *

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ᚦ - Thurisaz. "Giant, Thor." The third rune. It represents defense and aggression, confronting fears and overcoming obstacles. It is also like the hammer Mjölnir which causes the earth to tremble, or the thorn that pricks our thumb if we are careless.


	7. Jera

ᛃ

_“Sose benrenki, sose bluotrenki, sose lidirenki:  
Ben zi bena, bluot zi bluoda,  
Lid zi geliden, sose gelimida sin.”_

_“Like bone-sprain, so blood-sprain, so joint-sprain:  
Bone to bone, blood to blood,  
Joints to joints, so may they be mended.”_

—The Merseburg charms

* * *

The first light of day blinds him. Too long underground, too long without seeing the sun. Even the break of dawn is painful to behold.

But worse is the sight of the child in his arms without shadow to hide the mutated form. She - they - _whatever_ they are, how have they survived? One of the Enemy and one of the People, two beings so vastly different, such a... a _creature_ like this should not even exist. Yet here they are.

The malformed thing lies unmoving, not stirring when sunlight illuminates her face. His insides drop. Has she died? No; the burst hole in her body is healing, slowly. He sees organs regrowing and flesh forming. He has a thought. The parasite on this creature's back cared nothing for itself and only wanted him to help _sister_, who in turn regards the parasite as _brother_. He has no memory of the Enemy caring one whit about its own heads. The center head, undying malice and unceasing hunger for power or dominance; the right, cunning and efficient as any hunter but needlessly vicious; even the curious left head is brutal when the opportunity presents itself. Any fascination they held to this world's creatures amounted to little more than playing with their food.

What changed?

He is at a loss. He does not know what to do with this strange creature, but perhaps _she_ would, and so he will place his trust in one whose wisdom far surpasses his own. The air is so different now, but he recalls the way. He shoulders the child and marches on to Mothra's temple in the East.

* * *

**Temple of the Moth, Yunnan Province, China**

What a day.

Imagine Ilene's surprise when survivors of Outpost 66 reported a signal coming to life somewhere in the Ural mountains of Russia long enough for a heavily distorted call for help to break through before immediately dying. Then a Titan bursts through the mountainside and makes a beeline east. She and Ling are busy overseeing research and reconstruction at this rain forest temple for the newborn Mothra, but with that new Titan rapidly closing in on their location she can't help feeling anxious.

News stations and reporters are scrambling over each other to get any footage and updates on the approaching creature but are thankfully smart enough to keep a minimum safe distance. Meanwhile she and Ling are taking turns surveying the area, listening for updates from Castle Bravo, and keeping a watchful eye on Ilene's twins. It doesn't surprise her at all when Mothra proves herself an attentive babysitter in her own way, fawning over the girls as they sing to the colossal larva. She steps off the catwalk onto the grass to join Ling, where the young twins sit before that glimmering waterfall Mothra once cocooned herself in, just in time for another impromptu sing-along. Mothra wades through the pool with fairy-lights reflecting in her crystalline blue eyes, seems to greet Ilene with a song-like cry. Ilene feels her nerves settle. The girls keep going.

_"Mosura-yah, Mosura..."_

Not wanting to interrupt them, Ilene makes her way to Ling and nudges her, displays news footage of the approaching Titan on a tablet.

"I thought he'd be taller," Ling jokes. "Do we have a name for him?"

The Titan is mammalian, like Kong and Behemoth. He seems like a fusion of animal and stone, or some sort of discarded architecture acting as armor, particularly at the hands, head, and waist. He is powerfully built with broad shoulders and massive gorilla arms ending in stony appendages similar to bracers or gauntlets. Each hand has four fingers armored by similar stone material, every one the size of a monolith. The head is coated in a fiery red mane; a stone mask conceals the face but bares a thick beard like a goat's, and three pairs of horns curve from his head - one at the top of the skull, one where the temples would be, and one at the lower jaw jutting out like a set of tusks. His chunky legs are bipedal - again, like Kong - but the feet each have four great stone claws that look rather like cloven hooves. A short tail swishes at his flank. Overall he looks like some sort of humanoid with ape and goat features.

Ilene nods. "We're calling him Thor for now. Titanus Þunraz. The horns and hooves, like his goats. He's even got the gloves and belt."

One of the new recruits chimes in. "I thought Thor was blonde. Anyway, what do goats have to do with it?

"Thor had two goats to pull his chariot. And the Vikings associated blonde hair with cunning and red hair with foul tempers. He may have been protector of mankind, but Thor was a violent god... and _very_ quick to anger." Ilene smirks to herself when the recruit mumbles something about American comics. Her expression sobers immediately when subtle tremors vibrate through her bones. "Come on, let's get the girls."

While stepping down to the pool edge, Ling gestures at the tablet screen. "What do you make of that?"

"Make of what?"

"There, look. Rewind a bit - there."

It's really hard to see from the camera footage, but it looks like Thor is cradling something. Ilene squints at the image. Whatever it is, the pale thing looks vaguely humanoid with a long bony tail. She furrows her brows. What on earth would he be doing bringing it to Mothra?

* * *

The world is changed. He has passed mountains and rolling plains, great gray cities with spires reaching to the clouds. In some places the air is disgusting to smell but in others the scent is more familiar. Not quite the same as he remembers, but... different. Little ones - descendants of the People - are so numerous. He fears the People he knew are all gone now, nothing left but echoes in bloodlines and etchings in stone. It is also... quieter. Here and there he stops to call for any of his own kin, survivors of the Enemy, and receives no answer. Not from his own at least. Great King Gojira has heard him, and others. He is anxious of the King's reaction to seeing the child in his arms, catching the Enemy's lingering scent and thunder, but the King is wise and would listen to his Queen's counsel. 

The surroundings soon grow into a riot of green life and he treads with greater care, for here is a bed made for the Queen. She has many titles. Queen of the Monsters, Giver of Life, All-Mother, and others. He catches sight of gray amidst the green. Nowhere near the scale of those ugly gray towers, just a small settlement beside Her stone temple. The child's terrible wounds have closed but she has gone stiff in his arms, curled into a ball like a sleeping cub. No breath. He cranes his neck to peer around and - there! 

_Mothra! All-Mother!_

The waterfall by the temple blinks at him and the goddess in her larval state emerges. Her presence radiates as strongly as it would in her imago form. Little ones scatter at his approach and he takes a knee, bows his head. Mothra tilts hers and gives a chirp of recognition, the sound humbling his heart.

_One of the Thunderers? I thought you all gone._

_No. When the One Who is Many roosted I sensed a storm like my own inside it, so I exiled myself rather than fight and risk strengthening it._ Even now the decision had felt cowardly to him. It was just as much to preserve his life as it was to deny the Enemy a power source. All his kin are gone and he remains. Perhaps they faced their end in terrible battle against the golden fiend.

Mothra nods at him. _ A wise decision. It's fortunate you missed his reawakening, and it may please you to learn he was defeated. But what brings you back to the realm of the living?_

He looks toward the child. _This... creature woke me. She is a... I don't know what she is. One of the Enemy and one of the People. Grave Chanters. I don't know how it happened. But I heard her cries and..._

_So that's what it was._ Mothra trills and clicks. _The poor thing. I thought I heard someone crying out. Bring her to me?_

He steps into the sparkling pool and stretches his big arms out as if offering the child as a gift or sacrifice, places her to rest on the grass. Mothra's gentle gaze narrows some as she considers the malformed thing, then the light dims in her particular way of closing her eyes. Her hum trickles through the water and up into the air. Fey lights from tiny insects flutter above the pool and over the creature's human-like face.

The child's chest heaves suddenly, startling the fey lights. Her eyes are open but unseeing. The parasite-brother's eyes roll uselessly in their own sockets. Mothra leans down and her mandibles nurse at the scarred hide, as a mother cleans her young.

* * *

Dark. 

She's been here before. So has he, more than her. Maybe that's why she's not afraid. Just tired. Rest now. Only—

_Hello._

...green...?

_green but not the green glow that kills many not the destroyer this is good this is life and warm and safe _ Not green. Teal. A teal glow approaches like a lantern in darkness. A gentle trill carries through the air and into them _a song it is her song this is HER_

A voice that is not a voice enters their mind. It is feminine to her ears, velvety and soft. Anodyne to a weary body. 

_Welcome._

Something in her chest cracks and for a moment the teal glow appears familiar. _Mother?_ She tries to reach out but her limbs are lifeless; tries to speak but she's mute. Her eyes grow hot and wet, stinging with tears. She has to reach out, _must_ reach out, or she will die if she doesn't. _Mother, is that you?_

The shapeless teal glow takes form and unfurls great, majestic wings. Red eye spots wink at them, each one warm as the sun. Like a pair of arms the wings envelop them. They feel the easy beat of an immense heart full of gentle power and love, and their own tired hearts break to be in such a presence. Their eyes lock onto blue, the most beautiful blue eyes in the world.

Mothra.

The queen's head leans in to press against hers and by some long forgotten instinct she knows they are to breathe each other in. A sacred exchange. Another sob wracks through her being when Mothra nuzzles her.

_I feel it. Such pain and horrors you have been through. Both of you._

_I can hear you,_ she tries to choke out through the tears. _I can_ understand_ you!_

Somehow they know Mothra is smiling. _You could_ always understand_ us, child. You may have forgotten the words, but never the music._ Mandibles brush her head like a mother's kiss, and she does the same to his head. He weeps in awe at the gentle touch._ I won't ask why you are together. I only ask that you stay a while and rest. You have suffered so much. We can't always be strong_.

They are gathered into an embrace held close to that wondrous heart, its sure steady beat and a sweet song easing their pains. If she could she would embrace him as well. For the first time in truly a long time, they are safe.

* * *

Hushed voices mumble at the creature Mothra tends to. Another report for Castle Bravo. Ling takes mental notes of what discernible features she can make out, but it's difficult due to its fetal position and bone matter spreading over it like some calcified blanket.

Ilene leans down to pick up her daughter.

"Vivi," the girl chirps.

She feels a pang of hurt in her chest. That had been the twins' nickname for...

"Vivi's gone, bǎobǎo," she reminds the child gently. Almost a year ago to the day; things just haven't been the same without her, or Serizawa. Emma may have been a rock star in Monarch before her betrayal, but Vivienne was no less popular. Her humor and charm and ease of making things better just by being there. She and Ilene had used runes as a secret code initially for fun but it came in handy so many times in the past; Sam Coleman found her presence a balm for his anxiety; Stanton could throw a joke and she could unexpectedly throw one back. Mark had almost turned back to drinking thanks to his survivor's guilt - almost. Maddie had made sure he didn't, but despite putting on a brave face it's clear the loss has affected her. Not for the first time since that night, Ilene wonders how different things would be if... Vivienne would have made a good surrogate mother for Madison.

Ilene is surprised when the girl shakes her head, points at the bone-covered thing and insists, "Vivi!"

Here Ling stares long and hard at the creature. She has to admit, there's something uncannily familiar about it, but can't... hold on. She squints, scrutinizes the profile. Something about the shape of the nose or snout... no. No, that can't be right.

"The face," she whispers, nudges Ilene.

"Don't be ridiculous," Ilene's tone sharpens. She was there when it happened, saw it happen with her own eyes. That scream still comes back to haunt her sometimes.

"But you _do_ see it?" Ling gives her sister a hard stare.

Ilene doesn't know what she's looking at. She tries not to think about the particular shape and color of those sunken eyes - bloodshot and glazed, but insect lights reflect off of hazel green irises. A very similar pair of hazel green eyes used to twinkle when they took in the striations of fossil fragments and read them like tea leaves. Just then the creature makes a noise somewhere between sobbing or choking, gazing up at Mothra like she's the whole world and struggles to move an arm frozen in something like rigor mortis. Mothra croons at it and bumps their heads together like cats do, does the same to a vestigial draconic head at the thing's spine. Ilene _really_ doesn't like the look of that second head. Her eyes sting for a second but she forces the feelings and memories down.

She's dead and gone.

"You're just projecting it," Ilene says and turns on her heel.

* * *

> **<Castle Bravo, briefing room, security footage, 5-13-2020>**
> 
> **Stanton:** About ██ hours ago a distress call sounded from around Kholat Syakhl in the Ural mountain range not long after those mystery quakes ended. Here's what we got.
> 
> [An audio recording of the distress call plays. Heavy interference. Background noise; someone crying, frantic voices, distorted inhuman screaming.]
> 
> **Coleman:** That was... pleasant.
> 
> **Stanton:** Caller identifies herself as Dr. Mariko **[DATA EXPUNGED]**, who was listed among the casualties of Outpost 58. As for what she's doing on the other side of the world _not_ being dead, we're better off dealing with that later. We can assume at least one of the rampaging Titans mentioned is the specimen that's making its way to the Yunnan province.
> 
> **Chen:** _Actually, Rick, he's already here. Both of them, and they're not causing any trouble. Meet Titanus Þunraz - Thor, if you prefer._
> 
> [Footage of Titanus Þunraz, Mosura, and the unknown specimen are displayed.]
> 
> **Coleman:** Oh my god. Look at it.
> 
> **Chen:** _We're going to monitor the second specimen as best we can. Already managed to get initial brain scans in - here. They should be onscreen now. It has two brains, one for each head._
> 
> [Images of brain scan appear onscreen. The main head has noticeably more blue coloration than the vestigial head.]
> 
> **Foster:** Huh.
> 
> **Chen:** _Anything catch your eye, ma'am?_
> 
> **Foster:** No, I recognize the look of the scan in the main head. I've seen it in some soldiers - looks similar to PTSD.
> 
> **Chen:** _Really? Interesting._
> 
> **Coleman:** In any case, the Russian government caught wind of the distress call and is requesting a joint operation in investigating the cause behind that distress call, what's in the facility, and picking up any survivors, if anyone is still alive. Which, hopefully, they are. We've already received recommendations for a Team "Mauzer" under Lieutenant Commander Pasternak.
> 
> **Foster:** Do we know anything about this facility?
> 
> **Coleman:** We're looking, but officially speaking we only have the one Russian outpost, nothing in the Ural mountains. But that is the "official" story, so if there is anything to find it's probably buried under a coat of redacted black. So it was most likely abandoned at some point in the past.
> 
> **Stanton:** Yeah, and since this isn't a guarded facility like most outposts, and new Titans are involved, you can bet pharmaceutical companies are gonna want whatever biological goody bags are hiding in there. Unless they've got a functional moral compass I doubt any hired guns are going to care about any civilians between them and the prize.
> 
> **Foster:** Agreed. We don't know what's going on but if we don't act fast it's going to turn into Mardi Gras over there.
> 
> **Coleman:** So how do we want to do this?
> 
> **Foster:** A large force would be cumbersome. The civilians should be our priority - so we send in one team alongside Mauzer. We go in, find them, get them out. We can worry about any biological samples afterwards.
> 
> **<End recording>**

* * *

Dr. Ling's notes:

5/13/20

Specimen drifts in and out of consciousness. Col. Foster compares brain scan in main head to similar scans in PTSD sufferers. Better not risk scaring it. No idea what specimen is capable of. X-ray shows multiple redundant organs (two hearts, three lungs, etc.) Skeletal and skull structure indicate humanoid build. Tail begins to split in two at the tip. Bone growth possibly result of mutation in regenerative mechanism. Will attempt extracting blood sample if Thor will stop scaring crew away.

Addendum: Sample extraction unsuccessful. Bone too thick.

5/14/20

Specimen has lost consciousness. Comatose? Bone growth covers entire body now. Resembles an egg. 

5/16/20

G-Team returned with samples and one of Jonah's men for interrogation. Samples are mostly bone and blood. Find out what we can. Houston seems excited. Maddie called the other day, she and Mark are coming to visit. She wants him to see Mothra. Guess she thinks he still has a grudge against Titans or she wants to get away from the States for a while. Can't blame her. She's such a good kid. She might be interested to see Thor. He behaves himself well enough but gets antsy if we get too close to the egg. Mothra keeps him in check.

5/18/20

Saw Houston at breakfast today, asked him about progress with the samples. Looks like something's bothering him but won't say what. He'll share when he's ready.

* * *

> **<G-Team / Mauzer Extraction and Recovery Video Transcript, 5-15-2020>**
> 
> **Team(s):** "G-Team" / "Mauzer"
> 
> **Subject:** Monarch Outpost ██, Kholat Syakhl, Russia
> 
> **Team Leads:** G-Foster / M-Pasternak
> 
> **Team Members:** G-Barnes / G-Martinez / G-Griffin / G-Brody / M-Karamazov / M-Krupin / M-Isaev / M-Medvev
> 
> **<Begin log>**
> 
> [G-Team and Mauzer head-mounted cameras active. Team members check mics.]
> 
> **Griffin: **Be advised, Mauzer, we have a landed bird onsite. Permission to clear an LZ?
> 
> **Foster: **Granted. Take us down.
> 
> [Griffin lands the Osprey. G-Team exits and surveys the area. Helicopter and snowmobiles. Brody and Martinez investigate the downed crafts.]
> 
> **Brody:** Clear here. Looks like the engines have been tampered with.
> 
> **Foster:** Negative contacts here. Mauzer, you are clear to land.
> 
> **Pasternak:** _Acknowledged._
> 
> [Mauzer touches down. In light of the downed aircraft's tampered engines, Medvev and Griffin will be standing guard over their respective crafts. G-Team and Mauzer enter the facility. Initial interior space is a descending stairway. Mauzer takes point.]
> 
> **Pasternak:** Clear. There's a fork and service elevator. (Pause.) Dead. Foster, we'll take the right fork.
> 
> **Foster:** Understood. Going in.
> 
> [G-Team descends, walks down the left fork. Barnes takes point, advances up the hallway. Stops at a corner.]
> 
> **Foster:** Sound off. What have we got?
> 
> **Barnes:** Fortifications. Sand bags. Ammo casings, scorch marks on the walls. A _lot_ of old blood. Looks like something big got dragged off around the bend here... (Examines splatter patterns and blood trails going up the wall.) ...or up the ventilation shaft.
> 
> [Barnes stays close to the wall, peers around the corner. Gunshot. Barnes takes cover.]
> 
> **Barnes:** Contact!
> 
> **Foster:** Hold fire!
> 
> [Distant Russian shouting. Female voice calls out, American accent.]
> 
> **Unknown Contact:** GOD FUCKING DAMN IT WHY DIDN'T **[DATA EXPUNGED]** USE A SECURE CHANNEL? YOU WANT FRANKENSTEIN MONSTER JUICE TOO, ASSHOLE?!
> 
> **Martinez:** Colonel, wasn't **[DATA EXPUNGED]** the one who sent the message?
> 
> **Foster:** HEY! CEASE FIRE! FRIENDLIES HERE! WE'RE MONARCH!
> 
> [Gunshots die down. Casings rattle.]
> 
> **Unknown Contact:** YOU REALLY MONARCH?
> 
> **Foster:** Colonel Diane Foster, G-Team—
> 
> **Unknown Contact:** ABOUT FUCKING TIME YOU GOT HERE!
> 
> **Pasternak:** _ G-Team, we heard gunfire. Sit-rep?_
> 
> **Foster:** Looks like we found the civilians. Anything on your end?
> 
> **Pasternak:** _Negative. But those civilians are priority one. We'll keep an eye out in case someone gets curious._
> 
> **Foster:** Copy.
> 
> **>FRW>>**
> 
> [G-Team enters a civilian barracks led by one V. Tejada. Some refugees are tending to wounded civilians. Children are held together in a barricaded corner. One Sergeant ███████ Travis is situated in a separate corner in a fetal position, stitches lining his temples. Tejada stands watch over him. Dr. Mariko **[DATA EXPUNGED]** lies on a bed, rises to meet Foster.]
> 
> **Foster:** Dr. **[DATA EXPUNGED]**? Colonel Diane Foster. We received your distress call.
> 
> **Mariko:** Oh, thank god. You and every other hired gun and private company wanting a piece of the good stuff. A few merc teams came in already, but we took care of a few. Others double-backed the other way to get downstairs, but we didn't bother following them. Had to raid the ones we hit for whatever supplies they had on hand. Ammo and such. We left the bodies in a pile in a corner just outside. You see them?
> 
> **Foster:** No bodies. Just casings and dried blood. I take it you guys messed with the vehicles outside?
> 
> **Mariko:** Uh. What're...? No, we - we haven't been topside in days. Too scared to. Shit, if I knew those mercs had vehicles we could've been out of here a long time ago...
> 
> **Travis:** Food. Nothing more.
> 
> **Mariko:** (Sighs.) Great. Has Gr— Subject G been found? Does Monarch have her?
> 
> **Martinez:** What the hell is Subject G?
> 
> **Brody:** Are you talking about the bone thing? New Titan on the block brought it in.
> 
> **Mariko:** Good... good. Then she's safe.
> 
> **Foster:** We have Ospreys waiting outside. Let's get the wounded and children out of here.
> 
> **Tejada:** Anyone else come with you?
> 
> **Barnes:** Volunteers from the Russian military.
> 
> **Tejada:** Yeah, well... if they go sniffing too deep in here, they won't be coming back.
> 
> **Mariko:** Wait. I have samples and things. Monarch will want them. They're not much, all we could get after the various... tests... Jonah would run on Subject G.
> 
> **>FRW>>**
> 
> [Foster escorts Mariko and the first group of refugees. Brody watches the flank.]
> 
> **Brody:** Hey, what exactly was Jonah up to?
> 
> **Mariko:** I honestly couldn't tell you. He only brought me in for Subject G, but even then he wouldn't explain why he did the things he did to her. Threw chlorine gas grenades and napalm and verbal abuse at her, among other things, and called it "testing". Part of me thinks he got off on it.
> 
> **Foster:** Are we talking about the same man? Jonah's an extremist, but he's not the mad scientist type. Did he create this Subject G?
> 
> **Mariko:** No. She, uh... came from Ghidorah.
> 
> **Foster:** But Godzilla dusted Ghidorah in Boston. Lit him up like a Cuban cigar.
> 
> **Mariko:** Not the head he tore off in Isla de Mara.
> 
> [Long pause.]
> 
> **Brody:** Shit.
> 
> **Mariko:** The head's still here, as far as I know. Somewhere in the basement levels. I wasn't told much about it - wasn't my "priority". Besides, I've heard enough horror stories from Travis to not want to go near it.
> 
> [Static crackling. Radio squeals.]
> 
> **Pasternak:** _Foster. We found a containment chamber and observation room. Lots of structural damage here. Ash, busted doors. Smells like melted microwave._
> 
> **Mariko:** That'd be where we kept her. She's bio-electric.
> 
> **Foster:** Acknowledged. Stay alert, Pasternak, we don't know the extent of what's going on here.
> 
> **Pasternak:** _Understood. Guns hot. Isaev, Krupin, check out the chamber. I and Karamazov will check the observation room._
> 
> **Karamazov:** _ Aye._
> 
> **Isaev, Krupin:** _ Aye-aye._
> 
> [Long pause.]
> 
> **Isaev:** _Lots of carvings on the chamber walls. Look runic. Sending them in to your bird._
> 
> [Pause. Static.]
> 
> **Griffin:** _That's Viking-speak alright._ (Pause.) _Some of these look Japanese. How's your Japanese, Brody?_
> 
> **Brody:** Better than it used to be.
> 
> **Mariko:** I can take a look at them. She took to carving up the walls after a while, trying to pass time or keep from going crazy.
> 
> **Foster:** Hold on, Subject G knows how to write?
> 
> **Mariko:** She's... very smart.
> 
> **Pasternak:** _Anything on these terminals?_
> 
> **Karamazov:** _Checking. Nothing. More melted metal smell. Things are fried._
> 
> [Foster, Mariko, Brody, and the civilians emerge from the facility. Civilians board Medvev's Osprey.]
> 
> **Foster:** Touchdown. Barnes, send in the next group. I'll meet you halfway.
> 
> **Barnes:** _Copy. Headin' out._
> 
> **Brody:** Knock-knock, Griffin. Let the doc have a look at those carvings.
> 
> **Griffin:** Yeah, here.
> 
> [Sudden rumbling.]
> 
> **Foster:** Pasternak? What was that?
> 
> **Pasternak:** _Floor collapsed under Krupin! Isaev - hold tight—_
> 
> **Karamazov:** _I see him! Krupin, you read me?!_
> 
> **Krupin:** _Stop shouting. I read you. Fuck - think my leg's broken._
> 
> **Pasternak:** _Sit tight. Service elevator's dead, but there should be a stairway around. We're coming to get you._
> 
> **Krupin:** _Shit. There's a body. This is... sending in footage. Can you see this?_
> 
> **Medvev:** _Standby_. (Pause.) _Whoa. Whoa, what the fuck?_
> 
> [Cut to Krupin's head-mounted camera. Visual displays a large room in advanced state of disrepair, several open mortuary cold chambers built in the wall and an adjacent research area. Camera pans to what resembles an autopsy table and body disturbed by the collapse. Krupin slides close to examine the body, grunting. Corpse appears to be a severely decomposed nude humanoid at seven feet tall with thick patches of hair. Camera pans down and focuses on a tail. Krupin uses rifle to shove the body onto its back, curses at the sight of a rotting neanderthal-like face. Mouth is open, displaying ape-like teeth.]
> 
> **Krupin:** Oh my god.
> 
> **Pasternak:** _What is it?_
> 
> **Krupin:** Chuchuna. Unbelievable.
> 
> **Griffin:** _What the fuck's a chuchuna?_
> 
> **Mariko:** _Siberian Bigfoot. This place was built to research them back in the 20's and was converted into a Monarch outpost during the Cold War. They grabbed whatever specimens they could get from the Indigirka and Yana rivers, brought them here for preservation. It was operational long enough for advanced security measures to be installed, but was abandoned and stripped from the records around the 80's. At least, that's our best guess. There's a whole library catalog of old notebooks about it if you can get past all the black ink._
> 
> **Krupin:** In-fucking-credible.
> 
> **Karamazov:** _Area clear. Coming down now._
> 
> **Barnes:** _Touchdown, boss._
> 
> **Foster:** _Martinez, you're up. I want Tejada guarding the flank till I get there._
> 
> **Martinez:** _Negative, ma'am - we're hearing shit down here. The floor collapse must've alerted whoever's downstairs._
> 
> **Travis:** _Safe in the light. Safe in the light. Safe in the light._
> 
> [Krupin looks around. Muffled thumping, indistinct voices. Krupin unlocks weapon safety, shuffles behind the downed autopsy table for cover.]
> 
> **Foster:** _Pasternak, be advised. Potential hostiles incoming._
> 
> **Pasternak:** _Solid copy. Mauzer, you have permission to fire. Let's get our boy out of here._
> 
> **Isaev:** _Hell yes, sir._
> 
> [Cut to Martinez's camera. The last group of refugees are ready and waiting. Tejada stands by a muttering Travis.]
> 
> **Travis:** Safe in the light. Safe in the light. Safe in the light.
> 
> **Martinez:** What's the deal with him?
> 
> **Tejada:** Jonah's basement bullshit did something fucky with him. Don't know what. Don't wanna know. (Pause. Sniffs the air.) Oh, hell.
> 
> **Travis:** They're coming.
> 
> **Martinez:** Who's coming? (Groans.) Shit, something stinks.
> 
> [Distant metallic scraping, muffled thumping. Martinez and Tejada peek into the hallway, weapons up. Radio squeals.]
> 
> **Foster:** _Martinez..._ (Interference.) _Do y... _ (Trails off. Static.)
> 
> **Tejada:** (Whispers.) Keep your voice down. We got company.
> 
> [Martinez looks down opposite hall. Visual of humanoid figure in the distance. Indistinct noises. Appears to be grasping a long item.]
> 
> **Martinez:** Contact.
> 
> **Tejada:** Don't shoot. It won't even notice. Just keep an eye on it till boss lady gets here.
> 
> [Martinez maintains visual on the figure. Head appears to be twitching or looking around. Photo-receptive lights stare in Martinez's direction. Two minutes pass. Footsteps approach. Foster is heard. Tejada reiterates to hold fire.]
> 
> **Foster:** One of your friends?
> 
> **Tejada:** Ain't nothing left of my friends. Don't know who that thing used to be, but there's more of it downstairs. They're fast and stink like blood in a hot plate. Snatched up three civvies last night.
> 
> [Figure jerks its head to the side. Begins to walk out of view.]
> 
> **Foster:** Pasternak, do you read me? Contact headed your way. Looks armed. Grab Krupin and get the hell out of there.
> 
> [Severe interference.]
> 
> **Pasternak:** _Cop..._ _civilians out..._
> 
> [Video disconnects.]
> 
> **<End log>**

* * *

G-Team Extraction Report, Col. D. Foster

Stanton was right. By the time we arrived at the extraction sight there were already vehicles in the area. Snowmobiles, Humvees, and a helicopter. All of them with catastrophic engine damage. They must have been local. I can only assume that private companies didn't waste any time getting groups together for a trip to the mountains.

Things went smoothly at first. Mauzer made the all-clear and went ahead to clear the surrounding areas. We found the civilians almost immediately in a makeshift barricaded, plus one Dr. Mariko **[DATA EXPUNGED]** as well as officers Travis and Tejada, both of whom served under Alan Jonah. Travis was in a state of severe mental trauma which Tejada attributed to certain events occurring in Outpost ██'s basement levels. I am told that the civilians were survivors of Moscow's destruction during Ghidorah's awakening and were recruited under the guise of safety and work opportunities. Of the thirty-eight who were brought in, only fifteen remained; six children and nine adults.

Unknown contact was encountered during extraction, possibly a hired mercenary or one of Jonah's. At this point Travis experienced a potential psychotic break and ended his own life via gunshot to the head. Lieutenant Krupin was separated from Mauzer and despite their best efforts he did not survive. For further details on this encounter, Pasternak is available for testimony as is the footage recovered from his helmet camera.

Incidentally, Dr. **[DATA EXPUNGED]** has provided us with samples of what is known as Subject G (the unknown specimen currently at the Yunnan Province of China), and requests them to be delivered to Monarch immediately, regardless of what Pasternak's superiors demand. I don't know what's left in that facility but I saw the footage. Nobody needs more of the thing that killed Krupin. Whatever data we have ought to be left with Monarch. The last time I didn't take a scientist seriously the world almost ended.

—Foster

* * *

> **<G-Team / Mauzer Extraction and Recovery Video Transcript, Lt. Com. Pasternak, 5-15-2020>**
> 
> **<Begin log>**
> 
> [Pasternak, Karamazov and Isaev proceed down dark hallway. Camera pans over messages written in English on adjacent wall reading, "truth below" and "head is all". Rooms are checked, cleared. Muffled, metallic noises in the distance. Radio begins emitting static at intervals. Foster's voice comes through, distorted by interference.]
> 
> **Foster:** _Past... do you r...? Conta... r way... armed... rab Krup... hell out..._
> 
> **Pasternak:** Copy. Get the civilians out now.
> 
> [Radio squeals and dies. Distant sound like large metal sheet grinding on hard surface. Karamazov takes point and checks corner, gives the all-clear. Mauzer double-times around the corner and Karamazov kicks open a door, raises rifle. Krupin shouts. Pasternak and Isaev enter the room and pull Krupin to his feet, Karamazov keeping watch. Camera swivels up momentarily and catches humanoid figure watching from the upstairs hole. Mauzer does not appear to notice. Pastarnak and Isaev manage to secure Krupin when rubble falls from the ceiling followed by a sound like bare footsteps. Camera turns upward again. Humanoid figure from before is nowhere in sight.]
> 
> **Karamazov:** Clear.
> 
> **Pasternak:** Let's move.
> 
> [Pasternak grips rifle in hip-fire position, Karamazov watching their flank, and Mauzer doubles back to stairway. Sudden burst of static. Distant screaming followed by gunshot. Shouting. Mauzer rushes upstairs and back to entrance. Static.]
> 
> **Foster:** _All civilians accounted for! Sit-rep!_
> 
> **Pasternak:** Almost—
> 
> [Distant meaty sounds. Mauzer freezes. Cracking, or chomping. Vocalizations like wet gargling and retching, choking. Liquid spilling. Distorted groaning. Low, approaching sounds.]
> 
> **Pasternak:** We're leaving.
> 
> **Isaev:** Yep.
> 
> [Karamazov takes point, gives all-clear. Gunshot from behind, Krupin yells. Camera swivels back, showing humanoid figure from before shuffling towards Mauzer, dragging Sgt. Travis's body, face indistinguishable but eyes reflect light; figure is dressed similarly to Sgt. Travis who appears to have a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head, blood dripping from lower jaw to the top of his head. Travis raises 9mm and fires wildly.]
> 
> **Pasternak:** OPEN FIRE!
> 
> [Muzzle flash, short controlled bursts. Humanoid figure drops Travis and throws its body forward. Camera shakes and tumbles. Visual tearing. Krupin screams. Camera pans to figure tearing into Krupin with sharp ingrown teeth and long nails. Pasternak jams rifle barrel into contact's head and fires. Skin appears jaundiced and reptilian, something slithering underneath, eyes milky white, emits low noise. Contact grips Pasternak and hurls him away with startling strength. Pasternak tumbles violently, visual tearing. Isaev is thrown as well. Karamazov continues firing. Krupin screams again but is cut off by meaty squelching and muffled pops. Karamazov rushes in and grabs Pasternak, camera looking back to see the figure picking Travis back up and dragging away Krupin whose head is nearly severed from its neck.]
> 
> **Karamazov:** SIR!
> 
> **Pasternak:** GO! FUCKING GO!
> 
> **<End log>**

* * *

"Mark and Maddie are coming to visit," Ling announces. She frowns when Ilene doesn't answer. "Hey, what's wrong?"

Ilene blinks rapidly as if she'd been napping. "Sorry. What happened?"

"Mark and Madison are planning a visit. They're interested in seeing our new friends, and Maddie wants to see Mothra again. Mark's probably going to get on his high horse again. No offense."

Ilene shrugs. "He's gotten over himself regarding the Titans. Anyway, why would I be offended?" Ling makes a vague gesture and scrunches her face in an "oh you know" way, making Ilene shoot her a bored look. "Nah. Mark's not my type."

"You sure? I could have sworn..."

"What, because I _held his hand_ that one time? Fuck off, maid of honor." There's no bite to it though, and Ling laughs. "God, you sound like the rumor mill back when Mark and Emma divorced and people thought Viv—"

Ilene's face snaps from good humor to a sort of impassive glaze.

She finishes sort of flatly, "They thought Vivienne would end up with Mark if he got custody. Because of how close she and Madison were."

Ling sits down next to her sister. She gets the feeling that's what's been bugging Ilene lately, ever since the specimen - the Subject G, according to a certain not-dead operative - came to them. Ling sighs and stares at her coffee.

"She wouldn't have," Ling says. "Viv could only tolerate so much 'kill big monster' talk. She'd smile, all teeth, and kick his ass into the ocean." Fortunately that mental image gets a grin out of Ilene, if only briefly.

"Heard her screaming in my sleep again," Ilene almost mumbles. "First time in a good while."

A beat. Ling presses the mug to her lips but doesn't take a sip. Lukewarm coffee on her lip. "I miss her too."

The two just sit in silence for a while. A soft knock gets their attention, Ling turning to see Houston Brooks watching them. He doesn't look quite as conflicted with himself as he had the last few days. It looks more like his entire view of the world as been turned upside-down, or he's seen a ghost. There's a brief awkward pause until Ling nudges her sister, nods in Brooks' direction.

"What's up?"

"Um," Brooks starts. "The, ah... the results came in. From the samples we got. Of..."

"You don't look so good," Ilene points out.

Brooks opens his mouth, shuts it, clears his throat. "You, uh. You're gonna want to see this."

The sisters exchange a look and stand up, following Brooks out of the mess hall and into an office. He pulls out a chair by the PC and Ilene parks herself in front of it, Ling viewing the screen over her shoulder. It looks like DNA results, all right. Finally, something that can tell them what Subject G _is._ That Mariko woman, now holed up in her own private chambers nearby for convenience's sake, has been suspiciously tight-lipped about it, aside from her remark about the creature "coming from Ghidorah" and apparently being smart enough to write in Japanese and Elder Futhark. She'd been insistent that Monarch examine and identify the samples _before_ she starts talking.

Unfortunately genetics and forensics aren't Ilene's forte.

"So, what are we looking at?"

Brooks is unusually nervous. "Well, uh. See, this thing is... she's a chimera. That's the best way I can describe it. Two different DNA squences, male and female chromosomes. One half matches up with Ghidorah."

Ilene stiffens. No wonder she doesn't like how that vestigial head looks, and Mark is not going to be happy about this. He should live the rest of his life without hearing that monster's name again, and Madison... she can't imagine what the poor kid's been going through since last year. Her gaze lowers and catches a notepad dotted with scribbles. Latin, she thinks. Brooks' handwriting always turns into chicken scratch when he gets agitated. All she can make out is _redivivus_. Probably working on a scientific name for Subject G.

"And the other match?"

Brooks takes a breath. "The other. There's the kicker. Thing is, we figured it out not long ago, but... we just kept checking, double-checking, triple-checking. Mariko confirmed it. She's even got audio recordings of the damn thing talking, and I mean _talking._ Not mimicking. Not making noise that sounds like words, it's..." Brooks trails off and covers his eyes, glasses knocked askew. "She played one for me, and... god, it's just so..."

Again, Ilene and Ling exchange looks, more out of concern this time. Ilene glances at the notepad again. Composing himself, Brooks points to a minimized window. Ilene clicks on it and a black-and-white photo winks into view. At first Ilene doesn't know what to make of it. She looks at the photo, at the DNA sequence, at Brooks, and back to the photo again. Ling figures it out before she does, covers her mouth and backs away from the monitor, making a noise like gasping or sobbing.

Ilene shakes her head. "That's not possible." Her voice is nearly gone. "I saw her... that's not..."

Redivivus. Vivus. 

Reincarnated.

Vivienne Graham's photo smiles at her. Almost secretive. Knowing. Like she's expecting the photo will come to life and quip, "I got better."

_"It's her,"_ Houston exhales.

* * *

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ᛃ - Jera. "Year." The twelfth rune. It represents the the unstoppable, unrelenting, unhurried persistence of nature; the good harvest as sown by good action. And yet this is only temporary. As with the seasons, one cycle of life ends and another begins.


	8. Perthro

ᛈ

_"...even in darkness the wonder and beauty of the world never leaves. It’s always there, just waiting to be seen again."_

* * *

> **<Audio log, Interview **███**-1, 5-17-2020>**
> 
> **Interviewer:** Dr. Coleman  
**Interviewed:** V. Tejada
> 
> **<Begin log>**
> 
> **Tejada:** Saying this last year sucked ass is like saying water's wet. We were ordered from the moment we found out she was in the head to "observe but not aid." Didn't know if she'd be zombified like those Russians did with a dog or what. Never expected half of the shit that happened. (Pause.) So, what do you wanna know?
> 
> **Coleman:** What about the facility? Can you say anything about the research and experiments from your perspective?
> 
> **Tejada:** First few months was business as usual while subject was... incubating? I think that's the right word. Anyway. We'd shave off some samples from the head, poke around with them a bit and advertise 'em to the highest bidder. Then Kauffman would ship the goods out and come back with supplies.
> 
> **Coleman:** Such as?
> 
> **Tejada:** Food, medical and chemical goods, ammunition and weaponry. Whatever guns we can get to make sure the subject stayed... compliant. Sometimes Kauffman came back with more Titan bits for the boss to play with. Anything we could get, like detritus from the rock-bull thing—
> 
> **Coleman:** Titanus Methuselah.
> 
> **Tejada:** Whatever. Shit like that. Sometimes we had to send a whole team out with him to secure the really good stuff. This is something we had to fight tooth and nail with other hired guns. Who hired them, I don't know, but some companies are so hot for Titan booty they'll scramble over each other to get a piece of it. Probably had to fight off some of the guys you at Monarch get volunteers from.
> 
> **Coleman:** But what was the, um, prize?
> 
> **Tejada:** Fragments of Godzilla's dorsal spines from his last fight with the Muto Prime.
> 
> [Long pause.]
> 
> **Coleman:** That's... distressing.
> 
> **Tejada:** The Basement Club – that's what we call the guys who got really involved with Jonah's secret experiments – they were pretty fuckin' stoked when those things came in. Guess the spines have some other biological goodies in there besides the radiation. And before you ask, no, I don't know what they were planning to do with them. Jonah didn't tell us shit-on-jack what he was doing down there. But if it has something to do with the... the _freaks_ that took off with Travis and that Russian guy...
> 
> **Coleman:** Yeah, we uh... we reviewed the footage. Is there any information you can give us about them?
> 
> **Tejada:** Longest ████ days of my life. (Sigh.) You saw one of them take a point-blank headshot and keep going like it was a mosquito bite. That's why I told your guys not to open fire on the one we saw. Maybe Jonah got some Ghidorah juice into them, trying to replicate Subject G and see what happens. _She_ took everything we had to throw at her, anti-tank rounds, rockets, .50 cal, chlorine gas, napalm, you name it. They hurt her, yeah. Chunks would get blown off. But they'd always grow back, and there we'd have another source of stuff to work with. So who knows what those creeps are capable of, if they've got Titan steroids from her and Ghidorah in their system. Gonna be pissed if they can shoot lightning from their eyeballs or some shit.
> 
> **Coleman:** Titan steroids. (Nervous chuckle. Pause.) Do... do you happen to know who any of your regular buyers are?
> 
> **Tejada:** Good question. Mostly it's the usual suspects, like private mercenary groups or governments in the middle of a nasty war and they need something to juice the boys up. Red Bamboo's a regular customer, and the █████████. I remember some deliveries we made in Afghanistan. And then there's Bio-Major. They've been sniffing around that rain forest that popped up in the Sahara, and they were interested in what we had to sell. Keep an eye on those guys.
> 
> **Coleman:** Great.
> 
> **Tejada:** Anything else?
> 
> **Coleman:** Uh, yes. About Subject G. DNA tests are still underway but we don't know how accurate the samples we received will be, and since the creature itself seems to have turned into a giant egg, is there any advice you can give us?
> 
> **Tejada:** (Taps finger against the table for emphasis.) One, listen to the recordings. **[DATA EXPUNGED]** has them. We also have some stuff from Outpost 32 before it turned into a crater, so look at them too. They've got notes from Graham herself. I'd tell you what they say, but I can't read whatever the hell language she wrote them in. Two, when the egg hatches, don't scare what comes out. No sudden loud noises, no weapon discharge, no fireworks. I wouldn't be surprised if she's still fucked in the head after everything we did to her. Four, and this is the most important thing - for god's sake, _do not make her angry._
> 
> **Coleman:** Okay... I think we're done here. Thank you for your cooperation—
> 
> **Tejada:** _Do not fucking piss her off._ Understand?
> 
> **Coleman:** I-I understand.
> 
> **Tejada:** We made her a demon.
> 
> **<End log>**

* * *

Ilene's prediction that Mark wouldn't be happy with the news turned out to be true. Mark's temper is the sort that will build up steam over time like a tea kettle. He'd demanded in a near whisper to know where the hell they got the idea of Subject G's identity, then upon being told Mariko's location and her oath to silence until the DNA results were in he now marches for the holding room with Brooks, the twins, and Madison hot on his tail. He barges in past the guards to see Mariko idly bouncing a ball off the wall, Mark's sudden intrusion making her jump.

"Who the hell are you?"

"I'm the guy who wants to know _where the fuck_ you get off saying Vivienne's still alive," Mark snarls.

After a second Mariko's expression darkens. "Right. You must be Emma's idiot ex-husband. What do you care? Titans are just a bunch of mass-murdering brainless monsters, and we at Monarch are all nutjobs for worshipping them like gods, _right?"_

"Answer me!"

"Mark, calm down!" Brooks tries, only for Mark to round on him.

"CALM DOWN?! How am I supposed to do that?! Vivienne is _dead!_ And fry-face here says she's magically come back to life and turning into a Titan?! You don't think she's blowing smoke up your asses?!"

"We only know it's her DNA in there," Ling points out, still coming to terms with the revelation herself. "That doesn't necessarily mean it's literally _her,_ does it?"

Mariko chucks the ball at the wall, harder this time. "You want more proof? Look at the notes from Outpost 32 and have a listen to the audio recordings. I've got plenty of those."

"I don't need proof," Mark's voice lowers. _"I... was... there. _ She saved my life. And I watched her die."

"So did I, Mark," Ilene almost whispers. "Do you think I don't have a hard time believing it either?"

"After all the weird shit we've seen, I think we can safely throw arbitrary skepticism out the window," Mariko remarks. "Ghidorah's an alien, remember? An alien that can grow a severed head back, and possibly survive the vacuum of space if his reaction to the oxygen destroyer is any hint."

"Arbitrary?" Mark almost laughs. _"Arbitrary. _ You're insane. And you guys," he turns back to Brooks, Ilene and Ling. "Why are you telling us this? And Maddie - she's—"

"Would you rather we kept it secret only to dramatically reveal it at the worst possible moment?" Ilene shoots back. "Because that's worked out so well in the past! What's more, you have the right to know - both of you!"

"Dad," Madison starts, but Mark interrupts.

"She's still just a child!"

"She's a very capable girl," Ling says and turns to Madison herself. "You're the one who brought all the Titans to Boston."

"And nearly got killed in the process! Do you realize how it feels to relive losing a child to monsters turning your home into a war zone?! How close I probably was to losing my daughter the same way I lost my son?!"

Mariko catches her ball with an audible slap. "Oh, shut up for once and get in line, Russell! You talk like you're the only one who's suffered! What about everyone else who lost someone, or everyone? Do they not count? Just faceless statistics? What's so special about you that makes your problems so much more important? You talk on and on about how much you hate the Titans and how we should have killed them and blah blah blah! Spouting bullshit is all you're good for! And Graham - would you say she spent her life saving yours? Because it sounds to me like she wasted it on you!"

Mark roars, ready to lunge. He probably would start getting physical if not for Brooks and the guards restraining him.

"DAD!" Madison screams.

The whole place goes silent from her sudden shout. Ever since hearing the news Madison has gone deathly silent from shock. Mark looks over at his shoulder at her. Under her mussed up bangs Madison's eyes are going slightly bloodshot and she's visibly shaking, fists clenching and unclenching. There's a hesitation, as if Madison is still processing the revelation. Her voice cracks a little, and her face fights a losing battle for neutrality.

"I want to hear the recordings."

* * *

**<Recovered Materials-Outpost 32, Outpost **██**>**

Documents recovered from laptop in Outpost 32's biology wing:

> Subject appears draconic, but McGraw will swear up and down that it's not a dragon because obviously "True Dragons" have four legs and one head. Sure, Gary Gygax. Graham and I keep telling him to stop being a neckbeard dragging d&d rules into not-d&d situations, but then he complains about Graham humming Doom music so we can't complain about his logic BUT OH WELL. This is why I stopped inviting him to watch GoT with me.
> 
> Won't tell him this but there is something weird about Monster Zero. Sometimes electronic equipment will start acting up around it. Just this morning I thought the radio started malfunction, making noise on dead air.

> Langley's starting to act a little weird. He's never been assigned to such a remote location before so the isolation must be getting to him. A good long hit from Tom Danks after his next shift ought to help him out.

> I think Graham;sr staritng to lose it too but shef;sejfreally good at noth showign ti

Document with video recording recovered from USB drive in Outpost 32's communication center:

> Hirschel doesn't think so but something about Monster Zero is fucking around with Singh, Langley and Graham. Found this on the surveillance footage when she went to check out what was on the radio. Langley says he was just listening to it but I think Graham's starting to talk to it. Had to wipe it from the feed so she won't freak out more than she already did. Viv doesn't need this.

Video recording:

> Dr. Graham enters the chamber containing Titanus Ghidorah armed with an AR-15, announces "Okay! You want to talk, so here I am!" After a moment of silence Graham leans against the ice. She maintains this position for several minutes and appears to enter a trance. At the ██:██ mark the video quality experiences slight interference. Dr. Graham begins to emit a low sound not unlike throat singing despite having no prior experience doing so. Visual tearing increases in frequency. What she is 'throat singing' is unintelligible. After three minutes of this Dr. Graham backs away from the ice and looks up, at which point she sees something that causes her to scream and exit the chamber in full sprint. High-pitched static squeals from a radio and grows more distant.

Audio recording:

> [Unintelligible. Static crackling.] What the f... nothing, it's nothing. [Slow breathing.] Cabin fever. That's all. Almost over. [Shuffling.] Hell, where is it? I just put it... didn't I? [Heavy impact.] Oh thank god. [Paper crumpling. Light tapping. Long sigh.] Three days. Haven't slept in three days. Nearly over now. [Brief audio distortion. Voice turns raspy.] Rest a while.

Audio recording, Monarch Outpost ██, ██-██-2020:

> [Deep, rasping voice is heard sobbing. Higher pitched whimper. Heavy breathing. Sudden guttural wailing; audio distorts from the intense volume. Sound level increases as Subject G begins screaming and howling until audio turns to static. Distortions come in a rhythm, words unintelligible. After █████ ████ of screaming cries Subject G's voice is nearly gone and is reduced to quiet whimpers. "Otōsan" can be heard.]

Audio recording, Monarch Outpost ██, ██-██-2020:

> [Dull scraping. Low, slow breaths. Indistinct murmuring. Cloth shuffling, footsteps. Dr. Mariko **[DATA EXPUNGED]** speaks.]
> 
> **Mariko: **Are you alright?
> 
> [Voice is heard more clearly. Hint of an accent. Voice is monotonously reciting Act IV of T.S. Elliot's _The Hollow Men_.]
> 
> **Subject G:** Sightless unless the eyes reappear as the perpetual star multifoliate rose of death's twilight kingdom the hope only of empty men
> 
> **Mariko:** Graham?
> 
> **Subject G:** [No response. Continues reciting.]
> 
> [A third voice speaks in short, stilted sentences. Deeper than Subject G but lacks an accent.]
> 
> **Subject G-1a:** Hurts. In-side. Not-stop. Make-it-stop.

* * *

"Christ," Mark whispers, so quiet he can't hear himself. One recording after another. It's her voice. Distorted and deepened, sounding like the source has to push the words out and peppered with low growls or vague gargles, but the accent and cadence and rhythm - it's all her.

Once the howling starts he has to leave the office. It's too much. It's not like that scream of mortal terror that every now and then echoes in his head in the dead of night, that awful scream cut off so suddenly... this recorded noise is pure anguish. Mark morbidly wonders if he made a similar sound upon finding Andrew's body back in San Francisco. Animalistic wailing, and at the center of it is a human woman.

Could whatever's in that egg, if there's anything left of her, still talk? 

When he's certain the noise is over, he re-enters the office. No one looks at him. No one seems to be looking at anything except Ilene, leaning over photographs and a tattered notebook. Mark hazards a peek but can't read the writing.

"Runes," Ilene explains almost robotically. "She used them like a code. That's her writing. And here, carved into the wall."

"What do they say?"

Ilene points to the photos. "That's just the alphabet. But here," she taps a page in the book, "Here it says... she was afraid. Of Ghidorah. But she never wrote the name down. Always called it the Dragon or Devil. Compared it to Apophis."

Mark looks again. The handwritten runes start out neat but grow increasing scratched and haphazard, some scribbled over so hard the paper is torn and crumpled.

Ilene turns the page and focuses on a new passage, takes a moment to mentally translate.

"'Stuck. I can still hear it. It won't go away. The dragon is not sleeping but waits deathless and dreaming. Hear it in dreams—'"

The power fluctuates. Scattered groans are heard outside the office.

"That's been happening since yesterday," Brooks observes. "The egg's been growing - not by a lot unless you pay attention. Plus, there's a sort of electromagnetic pull to it. I guess she's feeding on the generators here. And every time she does..."

The walls and floors begin to vibrate subtly like a giant subwoofer is outside, and Mark feels his ears pop. A low, impossibly deep hum reverberates into his bones, followed by a musical trill. An awed hush falls over the place. Madison makes for the door, slipping away from Mark's outstretched hand and looking for a view of the waterfall. A growing crowd gathers on the catwalk just outside, mesmerized by something in the call.

She can just barely see it. The bony egg thrumming with a slow pulse like an immense heartbeat. There's a dim red glow inside it - that calms Madison's nerves somewhat; better red than yellow. Mothra crawls to the egg and curls around it, her usually high trilling cry softening into something like whale song. And somewhere, she can't tell where from this angle, Thor emits something like kulning to the egg alongside Mothra. The combination of sounds from the two great Titans and the egg's pulsations create a primordial music that stirs something in Madison's spirit, similar to that first entrancing moment she reached out to Mothra.

Voices of the gods.

It's not until Mark's hand gingerly falls on her shoulder that Madison realizes her fingers are pressed against the window glass, reaching for the life inside that egg; for the _person_ sleeping, dreaming, waiting inside that egg.

* * *

_time_

_time to wake up time to go but where don't know where here is_ Tired. So warm. Don't want to leave yet. _have to leave have to wake up it is time_ Must we? Just a little longer. _want to stay want to sleep but can't stay we are vulnerable we cannot defend ourselves unless we wake up must wake up_

* * *

On the 22nd of May, the egg hatches.

A fissure cracks open at the top like a thunderclap just before dawn, the resulting surge knocking out all power in the facility - uncomfortably similar to the male Muto's containment breach in 2014. Even Mariko escapes from her holding room to investigate, finding a growing throng of anxious scientists and researchers gathering to see the egg, but no one dares to exit and approach it. Before long the Chen sisters, Madison and Mark and Brooks have to fight through the crowd to get a look. Mothra hovers over the cracked egg while Thor watches from a distance. Madison had been barely able to sleep following the revelation, too many thoughts swirling in her head, when the great crack had sent her falling out of bed in a panic.

"What do we do now?" Mark asks.

"I don't know," Brooks responds. His face hardens when Mark shoots him an incredulous look. "This is unprecedented."

"Well, didn't this place have a containment field or one of those cattle prod gun things?"

Mariko scowls, shadows emphasizing the skin grafts coating her face. "We are not containing her. She's spent almost six months boxed up in a room too small for her to move around in thanks to one of those. I've seen what she can do. So if you want to go looking for a gun and trigger her PTSD, be my guest."

Another tremendous thunderclap blasts from the egg, the fissure opening wider and vaguely reminding Madison of a baked potato. There's a heavy pause. Tension runs so thick one could smell it as clear as the scent of ozone filtering in from outside. A chill runs down Madison's spine when a long serpentine neck stretches out of the opening. She blinks and for a split-second sees gleaming golden scales in darkness and snow. Despite the dark gray-black leathery hide, horns and spurs the color of bleached bone, despite the fatal jaws opening to yawn drowsily instead of belting out that godawful nightmare giggle, it looks too much like Ghidorah.

Neither Mothra or Thor make a move, but their positions change subtly. Like they're waiting to see what this thing will do, pounce if it decides to attack.

The Ghidorah head shakes a little, trying to wake up. It leans down and uses its jaws to pry the fissure open wider, clicking and warbling at something else inside the egg. Madison's brows furrow. Is this not the main head?

There's a low whine. Then claws reach out to grip the opening and another neck stretches out, this one much shorter and positioned before the other. The head that comes out appears more dinosaurian than draconic, the shape of its face and horns bringing to mind a _dracorex_, but where a beaked mouth would be is a lipped one like Ghidorah, or maybe Godzilla. A prominent, slightly curved horn protrudes from the crown on its head, ideal for charging. 

Unexpectedly, the Ghidorah head bumps its snout under the dinosaur head's chin and chirps, almost... affectionately.

The two-headed dragon - drake? - rises to a sitting position in the egg and stretches like a cat, the main head actually raising a human-like hand to cover its mouth when it yawns hugely. It looks like there are two rows of teeth; the outer row long and sharp fangs meant for piercing or crushing, the inner row full of blunt molars with only four sharp canines. Covered in dark hide all over, but plated with a bony exoskeleton around the torso and along the arms like a natural armor. With every roll and stretch of lean muscle under it the armor shifts to accommodate.

The dinosaur head stares sleepily at its hand; its eyes blink and surveys itself, then to the sky where the first beams of sunlight slide across the horizon. The creature lets out short gasps of air at the break of dawn, and something aches in Madison's heart seeing the sheer wealth of emotion on its face. She knows how expressive the Titans are, but there's something... naked and _human_ in this particular creature. Hazel green eyes widen and stare in awe at the surroundings, disbelieving at first, then the corners of its mouth pull into a tentative little smile, shadows creating prominent laugh lines. The eyes crinkle in the corner like crow's feet. The second head, curious about what has the first's attention, also takes in the sight.

"Oh my god," Mark breathes.

Mariko whispers something under her breath, face against the glass, entranced. All the fears and doubts melt away into speechless awe. Mariko repeats, "She's beautiful."

* * *

It... it doesn't hurt anymore. Strange. Or is it? She's spent so long in pain that she expects it to flare up again with a vengeance. She examines her arms and hands, flexes her biceps; bone still protrudes from flesh, but they no longer look malformed or diseased. They look and feel more natural, like built-in gauntlets or bracers. Flex the fingers, twist the wrist, bend the elbow. She feels her mouth spreading into a smile, a breathy soundless laugh coughing up.

It feels good. It feels _right._

_doesn't hurt. doesn't hurt! the hurt is gone the hurt is dead we can move and run and leap! still have bone but dead bone is gone we have new strong bone it is armor! sister has horns now! fearsome! strong!_

She chuffs out a rumbling laugh when San's forked tongue scents at her new horns, but the sound soon dies away when she spots something. Breath hitches in her lungs. That's... is that sunlight? Rationally she knows what it is, but in some parts of her mind and in her heart - it looks like a dream. Part of her wonders if this is just a memory, but she dares to hope...

_what is it? what do you see?_

_The sun. The sun!_

Life floods through her limbs and she takes the first step with new, strong hands and feet. God - she can _move!_ They can really move! A long, thin, forked tail sways catlike behind them - and the _grass!_ She takes a moment to relish the sensation; the softness, the crisp morning dew. Everything is green all over. Petals from blooming flowers dance gently around them. She and San delicately clamber up a cliff face and Vivienne turns her head towards..._ oh!_

_light the light of the sun the sky is changing colors many many colors the clouds and sky are becoming many colors pink purple red orange so many colors he has seen many skies on many worlds but remembers very little he remembers the skies after he and brothers conquered and changed them to dark and mighty tempests yellow lightning no sun storms too strong for a sun to peek through and make many colors_

San is puzzled at first by her reaction, but he watches the distant sun rise. Sees the god rays spread out through the multicolored clouds painting the sky with light. His confusion soon turns to fascination, then to wonder. His head turns to take in more, how the light colors the rain forest surrounding them, mist-shrouded mountains in the horizon, birds taking flight disturbed by their wandering, then—

_him!_

A red, horned giant stares them down. Memory floods through them - the Titan that freed them. Vivienne watches in awe, hand reflexively shooting to her mouth. She and San have grown so much, but this new incredible creature still towers over them. San looks at the Titan then to Vivienne. Her first instinct is to bow and show she means no harm but remembers her new horns. Wouldn't lowering them be interpreted as an intention to charge? She hazards a step forward and suddenly the air around the growling Titan crackles with power, electric blue lights trailing up his horns and stone gauntlets, red mane flaring and making himself appear even larger; an intimidation display. 

_Shit, shit, shit_ \- what do they do-? How do they-?

_too soon to fight. we are too small. _

San cranes his head to rise above hers and his flexible horns undulate, emitting a purr. Vivienne's face begins to tingle like building static. Is that - she can see a sort of thin aura surrounding the Titan, ebbing and flowing like the corona in an eclipse. Do she and San have some kind of mechanism to detect electric stimuli? She glances to San and sees a similar outline around him. Scientific curiosity rises, but before she can try anything a new sound is carried on the wind; a trilling song. All three heads turn to the source. Down the waterfall and beside the stone egg she and San hatched from, an immense carapaced larva watches them with clicking mandibles. Crystal blue eyes soften when their gazes are locked together - vague flashes of a dream or vision wink in the back of her mind and for a split second she sees elegant wings spreading skyward.

The red Titan relaxes some and lets out a pant or grunt, the blue corona dimming to nothing. He approaches and despite San reeling back cautiously Vivienne doesn't feel threatened, even when he comes close enough to reach out and grab them. Instead he lowers his upper body, one stony fist on the ground like a gorilla and holds out the other, palm up. For a moment Vivienne draws a blank, then she remembers certain social cues among animals. When he grunts again she tries extending one arm, and when he doesn't do anything to deter it, she slides her fingers down from wrist, down the palm, finally slipping off the stony fingers. The red Titan studies her for a moment. Seeming satisfied, he rises to a bipedal stance and throws his head back unleashing a deep, slow ululation, startling Vivienne to the point where she almost misses the intent behind the sound. Mothra trills in answer and he repeats the sound, faster this time.

The red Titan jerks his head at Vivienne and San in a nod and pant-barks. Is he waiting for them to join in? San, more accustomed to this manner of communication, cranes his head skyward and tries to mimic a sound he is unfamiliar with making. Another encouraging pant-bark from their horned friend and now Vivienne joins in, testing her vocals with short yawps before rising into a high-pitched ululation. It all feels rather ceremonial. Is this supposed to be part of a birthing ritual the red one's species would have observed? She can imagine words announced among the joyous sounds, and perhaps they are the words this horned creature is speaking:

_Lo, here is a new child of the earth!_

Here, under the rising sun and beside roaring water, the origin of all, they are reborn. They are _free_. 

* * *

> **<Castle Bravo, briefing room, security footage, 5-22-2020>**
> 
> [Several seconds of static. Brooks' face appears on screen.]
> 
> **Stanton:** And he's alive. What took you so long?
> 
> **Brooks:** The egg hatched.
> 
> **Stanton:** Oh.
> 
> **Brooks:** We only just got power back on, we'll try to get a visual of her.
> 
> **Coleman:** So, um. We've heard from the biology department. Do you think—?
> 
> **Brooks:** Maybe. I don't know. Dr. Ling wants to set up a means of communication. Figure out if she can still talk and ask questions only Graham would know the answers to.
> 
> **Stanton:** Okay, but hold on. I got to listen to the recordings. I still don't know what to think. And if it is her, what do we do? This isn't like a species we thought was extinct but made a secret comeback, or someone waking up at the morgue 'cause they were declared dead prematurely. This is literally rising from the dead like... Titan Jesus.
> 
> **Coleman:** People already know it - she - whatever it is, it's all over the news. Newborn two-headed Titan, also it kind of looks like Ghidorah. People are getting nervous. If and when we go public about what she is, do you think groups like Bio-Major are gonna try to replicate it? And I know there's supposed to be a torch and bury op for that Russian outpost, but there's still Ghidorah samples out there. What's going to happen?
> 
> **Brooks:** I don't know. I really don't.
> 
> **Stanton:** Well, I hate to be the bearer of potential bad news, but you got royalty headed your way.
> 
> **Brooks:** What - Godzilla?
> 
> **Stanton:** Him and our old friend the Firebird Suite.
> 
> **<End recording>**

* * *

The newborn Titan behaves for all the world like a giant puppy or kitten with two heads. Surveillance cameras back on, Madison finds herself staring at the footage of that dozing creature. How can something that came from Ghidorah look so at peace? It doesn't add up to the memories she has of it; the malice in all three heads, the delight in killing and making something suffer for fun. She remembers being on the receiving end of Ghidorah's lightning blasts. It'd been playing with her like a toy. Remembers the left head scenting the ashen remains of those soldiers it vaporized, like a kid torching ants with a magnifying glass. How the hell can a monster like that be fused or something with someone as good and kind as Vivienne?

She jumps when the office door opens and turns to see her father, the twins, and Brooks coming in. The chatter cuts off when they realize she's present. Madison doesn't feel like getting indignant over being left in the dark, settles for just nodding at them.

"What's up?"

"We're going to try something," Ling replies, decidedly ignoring the sharp look Mark shoots her way. "We don't have anything like the ORCA on us, but we're setting up a means to communicate with her. DNA tests aren't good enough. We have to be positive if it's really her, or if it's something else entirely. But we've got to work fast. Godzilla and Rodan are both headed this way, and who knows how they're going to react to..."

Madison's eyes shoot back to the footage. Now or never, it seems.

"I want to talk to her," she says.

Mark shakes his head sternly. "Maddie, no."

"Maddie, yes. I'm talking to her and that's that."

"That thing's half Ghidorah!"

Madison pounds a fist against the table. "Don't you think I know that?! But - she's in there too! I saw something. She's alive."

Mark groans, face buried in his palms. There's an awkward beat where Madison half expects someone to chime in, but a cursory glance shows all present trying to avoid eye contact. She's aware of how insane the whole situation sounds, but this may be the only way to be absolutely certain. Someone needs to take the step.

"Besides," Madison continues, tries to keep her voice steady. "I know Vivienne. I can ask her the right questions - I'd know the right answers."

Mark slumps into a chair and looks up at her. For a moment he looks older than ever - ever since the divorce and she stayed in her mother's custody, every time Madison would see her father over the years felt like he'd been aging more and more. She briefly wonders how he must feel; the daughter he desperately wanted to see and watch grow up has already grown so much, maybe too much. She's not the scared little girl he lost in a custody battle anymore. It won't be long before she's not even a girl anymore.

"Why do you want to do this so badly?" Mark asks in a whisper.

Madison tries to answer but the words don't come out right away. "I just—" She shrugs helplessly. "I mean... I miss her. If things were different - if she never... I wanted her to be my mom."

"Guys," Brooks interjects. "Time isn't really on our side here."

Mark ducks his head, stares solemnly at the floor. "Okay."

Madison doesn't know if she should embrace her father, or if he'll hold tight and never let her go. She just stands there for a moment and watches his resignation, figures she knows what he's thinking. She decides to focus on the present and turns to Ilene.

"So, uh... how are we doing this?"

Ilene rubs her arms awkwardly. "Since Rick isn't here, we're going to improvise. The notes from Outpost 32 mentioned Ghidorah might have been able to communicate through radio waves, some sort of electronic voice phenomenon." That makes Madison's skin crawl. She tries not to think of that moment she tried contacting Monarch in a bunker full of eco-terrorists and was cowed by a hellish wailing on the waves. She nods silently and follows Ilene outside to where things are being set up. 

Brooks regards Mark, who folds himself in a way that looks like something's eating him from the inside out, and recalls the hushed accusations of those who'd been fond of Graham; it wouldn't be the first time someone blamed Mark for Graham's death, but no one has ever said it outright. He wonders if Mark himself feels the same way.

"You don't want to talk to her?" he asks.

Mark doesn't respond at first but shakes his head slowly. "Can't. I'm scared."

* * *

It's not the most elaborate setup by Monarch's standards, but it's functional. The main components are a microphone to talk into and a ham radio for the new Titan to talk back through, if it - no, if _she_ can; the whole thing is situated outside by the catwalk, that way Madison can rush inside to safety in case things go sideways. She plants herself into a metal folding chair and wait for the creature in question to wake from her nap. Eventually the dark two-headed drake comes into view, slinks catlike down to the pool where Mothra waits, chirping. They bump heads together, grins breaking across both faces when Mothra nibbles at their horns with her mandibles. Madison steels herself with a deep breath and hits the switch, flinches when feedback blares loudly.

That gets their attention. First the Ghidorah head - that damned head - tilts curiously at her, then the main dinosaur head scrunches her face in an expression that says 'what the fuck was that?' It'd almost be funny if she weren't so nervous. She licks her dry lips and croaks into the microphone.

"Hello?"

Both heads squint in her direction and the drake steps cautiously closer, the main head lowering to see her more clearly and Madison's breath hitches at the way that face _lights up,_ like she recognizes her. Hazel green eyes twinkle and the mouth breaks into a broad smile, but despite the sharp and deadly teeth there's a warmth in that smile. The dinosaur head opens her mouth and lets out a low sound like a lion's rumble that vibrates through Madison's bones. Her expression turns puzzled and she tries to push out more noises in a distinct rhythm but struggles to make them coherent. Here the second head nudges its snout against her and shakes its head in a clear negative. A five-fingered hand rubs the first head's throat and the hopeful expression falls.

Madison bites her lip, feels like her jaws are locked around an invisible ball. If everything she's heard is true, and this really is _her_... she tries something. Madison clears her throat a few times, catching the two heads' attention, and begins to recite an old rhyme Vivienne used to tell her years ago as a lullaby, back when she was a toddler and Andrew was alive.

_"If you go down to the woods today you're sure of a big surprise_   
_If you go down to the woods today you'd better go in disguise_   
_For every bear that ever there was will gather there for certain_   
_Because today's the day the teddy bears have their picnic"_

Those greenish eyes widen in recognition. The drake lowers herself to lay down on the grass besides the remains of that egg. Another low noise from deep in the dinosaur head's throat, but with stops here and there in a sort of sing-song cadence, its vibrations rolling through Madison's frame. Her vision blurs upon realizing; the creature is _humming_ along with her! But she has to be absolutely positive. Madison ends the rhyme with a beat and stares into the creature's eyes.

"Vivienne?"

The drake breaks into a smile and nods. There's no way it isn't her - the crinkling in those eyes, the laugh lines, the smile - it's really _her._ The second head's horns quiver and it emits a low deep sound somewhere between purring and throat singing. The radio crackles, causing goosebumps to spread up Madison's arms when coherent sounds break through the static.

_"If you go. Down to the woods. To-day. You-are sure of. A big sur-prise."_

While Madison inches away from the radio, filled with dread at how _wrong_ the voice sounds, the dinosaur head watches with scientific fascination. The two heads click and hum to one another and understanding fills the main head, turning into realization. Now the main head throat sings, the rhino-like horn thrumming with electric power. Another static squeal, but this time the voice that comes out is blessedly familiar and comforting.

_"If you go down to the woods today you'd better go in disguise"_

"Holy shit," Madison sobs. "Holy shit. How are you doing that?"

The dinosaur head - _Vivienne's_ head - glances to the Ghidorah head and back to Madison, hefts her shoulders and growls to the tune of 'I dunno.'

Madison wipes her eyes. "Okay. Okay, okay. Um. Questions, right." She scrambles for something Vivienne would know, so many things she would know but anyone at Monarch would know - and then she remembers. One of the last FaceTime chats they'd had before that fatal night. Despite her mother's wishes, Madison would now and then clue Vivienne in on news of the ORCA's progress, and at one point Vivienne had asked a question that she should have seen coming; Vivienne's occupation didn't give her much leisure time but what little of it she had was sometimes spent playing certain games with Madison while babysitting.

So Madison asks, "Do you remember what you asked me about the ORCA?"

There's a long pause as the main head stares blankly at her. Madison urges her by humming a repetitious tune into the microphone. Vivienne's head bobs rhythmically and suddenly makes a noise like an immense coughing bull, but the smile implies it'd been a laugh.

Static.

_"Can it run Doom?"_

Madison bursts into uproarious laughter. She jumps from the chair, bounces in place like an excitable rabbit and shouts to the watching researchers, "IT'S HER! IT'S REALLY HER!" Rushing back to the microphone she rattles off a list of other questions ("What year was I born? What's your favorite dinosaur? I say 1973 you say?") to which Vivienne responds gamely (_"2007. T-rex. Still the best!"_). Madison even asks her to perform a particular dance apparently popular with kids her age, to which the drake gives her the most unimpressed stare known to man; she holds two thumbs up and laughs when Vivienne extends two middle fingers with a smirk.

Madison leans against the railing, laughing so hard she's almost crying. Vivienne is going electric with delight - literally. Warm autumn orange-red lights bloom gently along the leather texture of her hide, inciting another wave of fascination. She twists and flexes her arms, watching the light reflect off the waterfall mist and turns to see her reflection in the water. Horned brows quirk upwards as she appraises the sight, then she turns to Madison and points a thumb to herself, makes an inquiring grunt.

And Madison has to admit, it's not a bad look. "You look badass," she says, giggling lightly when Vivienne puffs her chest out and folds both arms - but the smile fades when Vivienne turns to give that monstrous second head a similarly playful look. Before she can stop herself Madison spits out, "Why you? Why did that monster take you away from..."

Vivienne looks back stunned by how the girl's happy, teary face twists into a scowl. The Ghidorah head tilts to and fro, looking like it doesn't even recognize her - like it didn't try to hunt her down with its other devil heads, leering, mocking, taunting as it prepared to blast her into oblivion.

"I called that thing to Boston," Madison explains. Vivienne's expression sobers and she nods.

_"I heard,"_ the radio crackles.

She nods back. "Okay. So I guess you know Godzilla kicked ass?" Another nod. "Cool. Then you should know that thing on your back tried to kill me." The Ghidorah head has the gall to look confused. "I was there, you snake son of a bitch! You and the other two were this close to turning me into dust!"

_"Don't. Re-mem-ber."_

"DON'T FUCKING LIE TO ME!"

Vivienne growls sharply between Madison and the other head. Another exchange between the two heads; both the red pair and her greenish eyes glaze over for a moment. Vivienne blinks rapidly and looks back to Madison.

_"I'm sorry."_ The static starts to interfere some with her words. _"Doesn't und...stand lying... separated from... body... de Mara. Nothing else."_

"Are you actually defending it?"

A stern shake of the head. _"No. Explaining."_

"That thing killed you!" Madison has to bite her tongue to keep from screaming it. Vivienne doesn't talk over her, lets her keep going. "It killed you and took you away from me! From Serizawa!" Hurt flashes in Vivienne's eyes. Something in how her posture deflates tells Madison that she doesn't need to report Serizawa's sacrifice. She just wipes her eyes again. "He loved you. Me too. And that thing - I hate it."

A slow, silent nod.

"I'm sorry, it's just..." Madison struggles to get the words out. She sniffles and blinks rapidly. "I missed you so much. I just wanted you _back."_

Vivienne makes a sad, quiet noise and seems to reach out but hesitates. Madison's heart breaks at the sight and she stretches out a hand. The drake hesitates, considering her massive clawed hand with dawning anxiety in those eyes, afraid of causing harm. She's grown so big now - if she stood on two legs, she'd be almost the size Kong was back in the 70's. So big she can easily grasp Madison, or anyone in one hand like a doll; so big she could easily crush... there's a despondent moan and that hand clenches into a fist, pressed against Vivienne's mouth.

"Aunt Viv?" Madison begs. 

The drake lets out a sort of whimper. They lock eyes again and Madison can see something new in that gaze, some feral edge that was never there before. The look of someone who's been through hell and back. Slowly, cautiously, tentatively, the clawed hand reaches for her and extends the pointer finger. Madison's palm presses against the knuckle. Even the shape is the same as Vivienne's blunt, wide fingertips back when she was human.

One of the researchers pokes his head out. "Hey, so... thing's are about to get crowded here pretty soon..."

Madison nods and backs away, talks into the microphone again. "Godzilla's coming. And Rodan." Vivienne blinks; at first breathless anticipation floods through her but she checks it with with a backward glance at the second head. "I don't know what's going to happen. How they'll react to you and... Godzilla might be cool with you, I don't really know, but Rodan..."

The Ghidorah head chitters a little and Vivienne's eyes are full of anxiety. Both heads survey the peaceful surroundings, probably imagining the outcome of their meeting. With a heavy breath Vivienne's countenance sharpens. The radio crackles again.

_"We better go."_

"Are you gonna fight?"

_"Don't want to."_

The drake rises to all fours and makes for the cliff edge. Something seizes in Madison's chest and she calls out, "Viv!" Words choke in her throat when Vivienne looks back at her. Not wanting to keep her, Madison puts on a brave face. "I'm glad you're back."

A smile spreads on the drake's face - for a second Madison imagines a human Vivienne; her easy, beautiful smile telling you things were going to be okay. Effortlessly, easily comforting. Anodyne to a worried soul. The radio doesn't squeal or crackle anymore, but a clawed hand rises into a thumbs up. Then she heads off into a steady walk, careful not to cause unnecessary harm to the rain forest, the earth quaking under each footfall. Madison can only assume she's heading somewhere to keep collateral damage to a minimum.

Mark bursts out onto the catwalk, calling her name. He pauses to watch the long, forked tail vanish from view. Madison can't read the look on his face. Is he regretting not talking to Vivienne while he had the chance? He just turns to her and suddenly looks helpless.

"What do we do now?"

Madison shrugs. "I guess we wait."

* * *

Once they've left the rain forest behind they increase their pace. Vivienne doesn't want to leave - Madison is there, and Mothra, Ilene and Ling, maybe Mark and others she knew from Monarch. But if that vision of Rodan's battle with Ghidorah she gleaned from San's memory is any hint, she can't stay and risk destroying Mothra's sanctum if Rodan intends on a rematch. And Godzilla... her spirit soars at the thought of seeing him again, she ought to be giddy at the idea of a being so great and monstrously majestic as him _seeing_ her, _acknowledging_ her! 

But she's also terrified. He and Ghidorah were - are - mortal enemies, their rivalry the stuff of legend. If she is a fusion of Ghidorah, if he sees San's head, how will he react? Will he accept them as Mothra and Thor did, or regard them with suspicion due to his eon-long hatred of Ghidorah, or attack outright? Vivienne doesn't know what to do if it comes to that. From the beginning Godzilla was the religious experience she never got sitting in a pew. She respects and admires him, would even worship him - Serizawa died for him! Maybe that's why dread weighs her down like a boulder in her gut. After everything that's happened, everything she and San have gone through, in a strange way she fears that Godzilla will look at her and be disappointed.

She shakes the thought from her mind. Thinking like a teenager pining for a father figure all over again. What is wrong with her?

San is also conflicted, but for different reasons. Vivienne senses his thoughts turning to Madison.

_confused. got to see little one. little one loves you. why are you sad?_

Her chest aches. _Because... I can't do the things I used to do. I can still talk to her, thank god. But I can't hold my friends or family. I can't... it's not the same. _I _am not the same._

_don't understand._

_I know. I can't expect anyone to understand right away. _

_why was little one so angry? never saw her._

_She must remember the you that grew back._ What a bizarre concept; two separate Sans, but while one was decapitated and changing her to be more like him, the other was wreaking havoc on the world and _her_ San has no memory of it. How did San put it so long ago - the connection had been severed? The idea of Ghidorah - that nightmare dragon that's haunted her dreams - targeting Madison for sport makes her blood boil and plasma flare. She stops, tries to settle her nerves. Focus. That wasn't her San. It's dead anyway. Even if, and when, it comes back, it's pointless to get riled up about it now. Just settle down! This is not the TIME—

_Child!_

The horned red Titan - Thor, she thinks - follows after them. She's about to respond when a distant sound reaches her; the wind roaring around a fast approaching object. Part of her recalls the fabled Wild Hunt. Could Rodan's arrival be an omen of some catastrophe, a prelude to battle, or an invitation to join the Titan's ranks? San surveys the surrounding skies and spots it. A flaming comet knifing through the sky. It banks a turn and soars in their direction, the distant roar growing louder and turning into a trumpeting scream.

Panic surges through her. She breaks into a gallop, deaf to San's pleas to stay calm and tries not to think about how familiar this is, how horrifyingly damned familiar - running for her life from whatever unholy shrieking monster is diving for the kill - doesn't even want to close her eyes in case she sees snow, god oh god oh god she'd thought things were getting better thought SHE was getting better but the nightmares will never go away never stop hunting her—

Hellfire blazes around her and a demon's talons pierce her hide, the apocalyptic trumpeting morphs into words.

_DEMON! USURPER! _

Whether it's the hunter's molten heat or plasma charging inside her she doesn't know - hurt has returned. San strikes like a furious serpent with lightning-quick lunges for their pursuer's throat. A noise like brimstone blasts at her ears and in her peripheral she sees a jagged beak breaking into the grinning maw of an erupting volcano. Adrenaline pumps through her and distantly she's aware of San's voice urging her to _fight back fight back FIGHT BACK_

Her fist cracks against the demon's mouth like a thunder bolt, startling him enough to release them and create distance between them. The plains under Rodan's feet go up into embers and he recovers from the shock with a rasping crow's chuckle. She feels their wounds cauterized by Rodan's heat. Instinctively Vivienne holds up a defensive hand.

_I don't want to fight!_

_No? _Rodan's expression almost seems insulted._ You stink of the Enemy's blood and thunder, share a head with the three who humiliated me and stole my throne, and you don't want to fight? I expected such from him_ \- Rodan sneers at Thor's approach, flares his wings - _that coward what fled the Enemy and let all his kin be slaughtered!_

Thor bellows in outrage and charges, but with a dancer's grace Rodan evades the attack and belches a fireball at his flank, the blast force sending Thor tumbling. San and Vivienne rush to the Thunderer's side, tail raised and forked tips shaking like a rattlesnake, San's horns flaring.

_not ghidorah!_ San roars. _not anymore!_

Rodan snorts. _Perhaps not. The King will decide. But I shall occupy you till he arrives!_

San and Vivienne exchange glances.

_must fight. no choice._

_We have so many choices!_ she protests. 

But Rodan is already - he launches with blinding speed and the impact sends them spiraling into the air, steam from the heated air searing their flesh, and they hit the ground hard _OUT OF THE WAY GET OUT_ so panicked she can't help but listen and scrambles away when Rodan crashes his talons into the spot they landed in. The fire demon doesn't let up. He rushes after them, fatal jaws lunging for purchase and they just keep rolling to maintain distance. Here they regain their footing and San is practically blasting in her head _DON'T STOP KEEP FIGHTING FIGHT BACK DEFEND YOURSELF_ but _how?!_ Crimson electricity crackles at San's jaws, but Thor bull-rushes the distracted Rodan and draws him into a grapple—

_NOW! STRIKE NOW!_

_I don't—_

Rodan belts out a screech and his body ignites, the flames rapidly spreading to cover Thor's body. Though he howls in pain his stone gauntlets, already heating up from the proximity, burst to life like bottled lightning storms - the electricity discharging around Rodan's raging inferno creating a terrifying display. A bolt arcs around his two crests and suddenly Vivienne doesn't see Rodan and Thor anymore. She sees the Dragon.

Something goes wrong. Where she should prostrate herself in fear of the monster, her body blazes into a crimson storm.

_no no NO NO FOCUS CONTROL YOURSELF NOT LIKE THIS_

She doesn't hear. Can't hear. Power screaming in her brain. Fear turns to blind rage. The very storm in her blood is a dragon baying for blood, urging her on, perverts the fear of a mortal into a god's fury, turns her hearts into war drums and hears it she HEARS it the dragon hungers for blood _SHE IS THE DRAGON_ the storm throws her back to the mad south where the world ended and she was reborn in the tides of destruction _DESTROY_ she is the dragon and the fire demon challenges her so she will go to war

_NO SISTER NO COME BACK CONTROL IT_

She charges.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ᛈ - Perthro. "Unknown." The fourteenth rune. It is represented by the lot cup used by warriors to seek knowledge of their fate before battle; it is the uncertainties in life, but also free will. It is a rune of memory and problem solving.


	9. Othala

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Apologies for the late update - writer's block hit around the same time as quarantine. Not sure I'm completely satisfied with this chapter but I didn't want to leave you guys hanging. Added bonus, I found some roars for Grahamdorah for you guys to get a feel of what they sound like! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKIjcIHeDtI

ᛟ

_"Footage from the U.S.S. Scorpion submarine revealed the Hollow Earth ruins predate all known human civilizations. They showed ancient humans worshiped Titans, forming symbiotic relationships with some. Others scavenged fallen Titans for food, building structures from bones and hides. Massive horns were created to replicate their calls. They called some of the creatures gods, the old ones, or dragons. Every culture worshiped their own Titan. Tribes built homes near benevolent Titan nests to protect against more hostile creatures. Evidence shows they may have even developed telepathic communication with the creatures..."_

* * *

She is deaf to everything but the roar of blood and the ringing _noise_ in her ears that presses against the insides of her eyes _that damned noise_

_YOU ARE SHOWING WEAKNESS_ no room for weakness or hesitation _YOU ARE NO TITAN YOU ARE A **DISGRACE**_ you were small and weak once but no more _WHY DO YOU HESITATE_ rip and tear _GET UP_ rip and tear _GET UP AND FIGHT_ you see the dragon that killed you always kills you in your dreams _YOU ARE THE DRAGON_ no room for fear anymore you are a titan now you can fight on their level _FIGHT IT **KILL IT** EAT IT FACE THE NIGHTMARE FIGHT THE NIGHTMARE KILL THE NIGHTMARE EAT THE NIGHTMARE EAT EAT EAT KILL THE FEAR_ kill it and know no fear

_vivienne! come back! hear me! listen listen LISTEN_

** _KILL IT _ ** _AND BE FREE_

* * *

Rodan breaks free of the grapple mere seconds from being gored by the creature's charging horn. Thor manages to avoid the attack as well and struggles to grab a hold of the Ghidorah-spawn, crying out in confusion at the sudden change in mood. The second head trills in a vain attempt to calm its sibling.

_stop! must stop!_

Rodan tilts his head. One moment the thing wanted peace and the next it's baying for blood, thrashing mindlessly at the earth. For a moment he thinks it would have been better if he'd backed off. Ghidorah wasn't the sort to preemptively call off a fight, or try reasoning with an opponent. There's something _off_ in the thing's fury, what's more - less like the controlled rage he expects from Godzilla and more like desperation, or...

Greenish eyes snap up to meet his gaze, but they are glazed over, blinded by something feral; the thing screeches and lunges into another charge. He just leaps into the air over the two heads.

A sound like thunder claps under him and pain shoots to his head - the Ghidorah-spawn had shot into the air after him and locked jaws around his leg. Now claws dig into his hips to climb the thing higher up Rodan's body. Rodan snaps his beak at the curved horn but is given an electric shock. In desperation the second head bites down on the first's neck and horns, trying to get its attention.

Rodan laughs despite his earlier thoughts. _ A pity this one's cracked! I like an opponent with spunk!_

_not funny! let us down!_

_As you like!_

Rodan's talons grip their dark torso, folds his wings and dives back to earth. Suddenly he feels like a boulder cracked into the side of his head, the creature climbing high enough to beat him about the face with fist and claw. It won't even use teeth or horns, not even its thunder? Who taught it to fight? Annoyed by the distraction, Rodan twists his body to spiral through the air; maybe that will disorient it some.

_stop! please! let us down!_

_First you accept the challenge, now you want to quit? I don't remember you being so scrambled in the head!_

_she can't control it! doesn't know how!_

Rodan squawks indignantly when hands try to wrap around his neck and he snaps at the invasive digits. _Doesn't know how?! You didn't even teach her that?!_

_so different! she is not like me! one of the little ones!_

Rodan's brain screeches to a halt. One of the... _what?_ Ghidorah could do that? How? And why? And how are they even alive... he recalls the sight of Ghidorah roosting on his volcano, after Rodan shamefully dragged himself from the ocean. Ghidorah having two heads, regrowing the left. Then—

This time a meteoric impact nearly knocks him senseless, him and the Ghidorah-spawn tumbling violently. The distraction had caused him to crash. For a moment Rodan lets himself recover, vision going spotty, waits for the sky to stop spinning. Thor lumbers into view, but in Rodan's dazed state he sees two of the horned Thunderer. The roar blasting into his face does nothing to stop the headache or the ringing in his ears. Thor flares with blue lightning and readies a fist to strike if Rodan decides to continue being a nuisance, but he gives a slow dismissive wave of his wing-claws. There's a flash of red nearby and he remembers.

The Ghidorah-spawn staggers to their feet, pulsing an angry red. Once they've recovered their senses the thing breaks into a gallop to charge once more, only to suddenly stop as though restrained. Lean muscles flex against the unseen restraints and the main head twitches spasmodically, foam spitting from her snapping jaws, reduced to a gibbering beast. The second head is poised in a stiff arc, every sinew pulled taut and jaws clenched so hard the surrounding muscles bulge.

_What is this?_ Thor demands at Rodan.

_You clearly know more than I! You tell me!_

The Ghidorah-spawn forces a single step forward. A throaty hum drones from the second head, barely able to send out a coherent message, but the intent comes across: _help. _Thor approaches. He drapes massive arms around her and holds tight, feeling the tempest raging through her. Her jaws force themselves open and belt out a horrible noise, similar to the wrathful shrieking he heard before breaking her free, but he can't tell if it's a sound of anger or fear or hate.

_Be calm!_ Thor insists. _The fight is over! He won't hurt you!_

But her eyes are wild with something he doesn't understand. She doesn't see him, blinded by madness. She thrashes against her own locked body, screeches incoherently, and though her brother seems to be leashing her he is rapidly losing control.

_Take it out!_ Rodan tries. _Do something!_

_I will not hurt her!_

_Just knock her out! If she has no control she's dangerous!_

_No!_

Rodan snarls impatiently and leaps in to take some control of the situation, knocking Thor back with mighty blows from his wings and then pinning the Ghidorah-spawn down, one taloned foot planted on the female head. Thor steadies himself in time to see the brother lose whatever mental control he had, their long tail snapping into action and wrapping around Rodan's neck like a noose. He makes a startled choking noise and falters; the sister twists under his weight rolls their bodies so their positions are reversed and begins to pummel Rodan with furious, clumsy overhead strikes, all the while her tail tightening around his neck.

The brother, unable to calm his sibling through voice seems to war with himself before ultimately rearing back. There's an instant where the sister pauses, looks back, and is met by her own brother's lunging jaws. This time a terrified scream escapes her throat.

_DON'T LOOK UP YOU'LL DIE IF YOU LOOK UP WHY DID YOU LOOK OH GOD THE TEETH SOMEONE SENSEI HELP ME_

** _HE LEFT YOU TO DIE_ **

The tail's grip slackens and Rodan kicks the Ghidorah-spawn hard enough to send them tumbling back, but instead of continuing to attack he breaks into a coughing fit after nearly being strangled, the sound like crumbling brimstone.

Thor keeps his attention on the screaming child. Fortunately she's given up the fight, but a new madness overtakes her. She cowers under her own distressed brother, curled up to hide herself from him, guttural wails and sobs making Thor's fur stand on end. The brother looks between her and Thor, so lost and afraid and desperate for everything to just stop but he doesn't know what to do. Thor doesn't know either, but he whirls back on Rodan and throws a punch at him, the force sending the impulsive raptor flying. Upon recovering Rodan flares his wings and readies another fireball, lost in the confusion and deciding to focus on anger. He blasts an inferno at Thor's charging form but the Thunderer soldiers through it and keeps going, ramming into Rodan, who latches talons into his shoulders and beats his wings just enough to lift them both and use Thor's momentum to toss themselves about in a clumsy grapple. Thor roars and grips Rodan's legs, charging electricity into him and trying to rip himself away. Everything has gone wrong all because of Rodan and he hasn't felt so helpless since—

Just as Rodan's maw belches with another eruption there's an anticlimactic slap and his beak is suddenly muzzled shut by silk webbing. Instinctively Thor lands a mighty blow and is about to throw more when his gauntlets are shackled by the same webbing mid-swing, leaving him to trip and fall into the dirt.

There's a tremendous quake. The very air growls around them.

The Ghidorah-head looks to the source and he ducks his head in fear. Rodan freezes and Thor turns his head. A great, jagged black mountain stomps their way, trailing nuclear blue mist. Despite the uncertainty, awe overwhelms Thor at the sight.

Godzilla.

The saurian colossus takes long, confident strides their way but his face is a scowl. He stops before them with another quaking stomp, that simple an action alone bearing the weight of an angered god. His brawny, muscular chest heaves in a decisive snort, and a shape appears at his shoulders; Mothra has come as well, and she addresses them with an imperious screech.

_WHAT. HAPPENED._

Thor shrinks back like a scolded cub. He glances helplessly to the little one. She has stopped screaming thankfully, but is in no state to talk, and though he wants to comfort her he fears doing the wrong thing and triggering another bout of insanity. For now he opts to make himself as small as possible.

Rodan for his part wilts under Godzilla's stare; things were never supposed to go this far. His fire dims with some shame as he remembers the creature was only just 'born', and looks at the creature's form curled into a quivering ball. She appears fully grown but is so _small._ He had been a small, shivering, fearful thing once. Rodan knows what he'd been told to do - scout ahead and observe the creature, nothing more - but the scent of thunder ignited a lingering resentment and the sight of that second head, near identical to Ghidorah save for color, stoked his emotions into a wildfire. In the moment it'd made sense to attack but seeing the Ghidorah-spawn quiver and whimper, burned and battered by their quarrel, makes him feel like a bully.

He pads towards Godzilla and stares at his toe claws. Despite being larger than Mothra he feels like a hatchling while she tears the silk from his beak, allowing him to voice his reasons for attacking the Ghidorah-spawn and subsequent realization. Godzilla simply continues to glare silently, which Rodan finds worse than if the King had roared over him. Hearing himself retell the events makes him feel foolish indeed, and that is punishment on its own. It feels like a long time before Godzilla finally growls in response.

_DO YOU THINK I DON'T ALSO SMELL GHIDORAH? THAT I DON'T UNDERSTAND WHY YOU WOULD ATTACK? BUT I ONLY SEE A FRIGHTENED WHELP._

_Tried to stop it,_ Thor groans plaintively and flinches when Godzilla's glare turns his way. _I tried. But she went mad with rage. I don't know why._

Mothra, by now calmed, gives a negative croon. _No, not rage. That was fear._

All eyes turn to the creature in question. The second head twists to regard them blankly and returns its attention to the other, an air of helplessness in its countenance. Thor stares at the ground and picks at the singed hairs in his beard.

_I... didn't know._

_I have seen her dreams. Before she hatched, she would have good dreams or terrible nightmares, always of the same thing. Ghidorah. She is wounded by him, in her mind, and it affects her body. It is not something I can heal._

Godzilla's stare lingers, hardening at the second Ghidorah-head. His entire being tenses, a reflexive reaction to seeing something so closely resembling his most loathed nemesis, but at the same time he considers Mothra's assessment of the other, the female half. Not trusting himself to make an unbiased snap decision he turns to Thor again, grunting when the Thunderer shrinks back.

_Enough. You are not a cub and I did not come to fight. What is she?_

Thor relaxes some, but not completely. _She is... or was... one of the little ones. Blood of the Grave Chanters. The Enemy did... something to her. I don't know what. But she is half and half. _

Godzilla blinks, registers a disbelieving crowing from Rodan. He whiffs the air for the creature's scent... yes. Faint, but familiar; he remembers the scent of the People of old. This one is different from the ones he knew so well once, perhaps a northern breed. Far too few humans now have the old blood, too few able to hear their voices, and the last one he knew able to hear him... Godzilla regards the creature again and looks to Mothra.

_She was one of the People? Who?_

_I don't know, but she was close to your old friend._

His amber eyes widen a fraction. He vaguely recalls something after killing the reawakened, mated parasites; two humans watching him. He doesn't remember any details beyond that; humans have gotten so small, or perhaps he's simply grown too large to tell. And on that night Ghidorah was released, when he'd toppled into a crevasse, he distinctly heard a tiny ringing in the ice before a tremendous impact. Had that been a scream? He looks at the dark shape in the distance and tries to imagine how she would have looked before the change. One of the People... was this the same one that screamed out that night? Little wonder the one who came to his temple looked strange all alone. Incomplete without the other.

Godzilla's gaze takes in Rodan, Thor, and finally Mothra. _Shall we tend to her?_

Mothra makes a sad sound. _Yes, but not now. Let us wait until they are ready - both of them._

* * *

stupid stupid so stupid you ruin everything why did you do that you know she fears eldest brother _you know_ eldest brother haunts her dreams still YOU KNOW she is scarred YOU _KNOW_ THIS so why did you remind her of her death now she won't even look at you even now you can't do anything right brothers are biggest cunts but YOU are the biggest cunt of all for doing what you did 

he was scared he didn't know what to do she was blood drunk again but it's not her fault she doesn't have control this too is his fault he didn't teach her he fails as a brother stupid slow useless worthless waste does she hate him now does she regret accepting him as brother she ought to hate him it's what he deserves for forgetting the voices of elder brother and eldest brother they had many ways of talking to little ones through waves and thought many little ones could talk through thought but so few now even she only hears very little barely a whisper but it's enough it's all brothers need to talk brothers no not his brothers anymore ghidorah is not dead no ghidorah is deathless and talking ghidorah talks to sister and tricks her he must shut ghidorah out

...

It's gone.

That noise in her brain is gone... no, that's not right. It's not a noise - a _force_. She'd felt that ringing. But it's gone now, nothing left of it but vague echoes. She's dimly aware of the sun setting, takes a moment to remember that such a thing is normal. God. She's been stuck in that dead chamber for so long she's forgotten what a sunset looks like, forgot about day and night. Time feels like such an alien concept now. How did all that happen over a single day? It all feels like a fever dream.

San is silent as death. Her face twitches a little, just a tic in her brow. For a moment she's about to turn around and check if he's still there when there's a telltale shift in muscle at her spine, feels him breathe but it's exaggerated, like he's saying without words _i'm here you don't have to look_. She finds herself a little afraid to look at him now after what happened - snapping awake from that red haze, the ringing gone, and then... don't think about it. She cannot afford another breakdown so soon after the last one. Doesn't want to feel small and weak and _tiny temporary an insect_ doesn't ever want to feel that way again.

She looks at her hand for what must be the tenth time now. Gray-black hide, bleached bone, claws. Good. This is normal. What she saw after that frenzy... it feels like she _needs_ to know what her hands look like, or else she'll be plunged back into time like falling into freezing water. Has to be sure. Steeling herself, her eyes run down and see legs - dark hide, bone armor, digitigrade, claws. A tail, thank god, her tail. She's still jittery but has to move, has to force herself to move. Her gaze trails up, sees snow-capped mountains, a sight she would normally drink in as deeply as a sunrise but now it only makes her feel nothing. Or maybe she does feel something, but it's muted. Vivienne feels very, very far away from herself; feels like someone else is forcing herself to stand and move. She turns and sees them some distance away - Thor, Rodan, Mothra, and—

_ **HE LET YOU DIE** _

_JESUS!_

Vivienne actually slaps herself. That damned ringing - force - whatever it is, it came back just for an instant! 'Ringing' doesn't even sound right, it's... if a synapse or _something_ else could make a noise, like an invisible edge rubbing against gray matter stretched and pulled taut - what _is_ that? San goes stiff and arches over them, horns undulating and he starts to near-inaudibly drone. Relief settles in. It'd been nothing, just... some brain fuck-up. She looks back up again and now Mothra's watching her with curious, concerned eyes. She approaches and bumps heads with the larval Queen - has her carapace grown harder? Is that just a trick of the light or has her coloration changed?

Mothra's trill is whisper-soft. _Are you well?_

_...I don't know._

_I'm sorry. If I knew how I would help._

_You've done so much already._

_And your brother?_

Vivienne isn't sure how to answer. San interrupts his droning to make an affirmative but terse chirrup before continuing. Thor grouses at the tone, mane bristling and about to berate him when he's silenced by a growl so deep it's as if the earth and sea are speaking. Vivienne's bones go electric at the sound - her veins pulse with orange-red light, and for some reason Mothra coos at her playfully.

_You're happy to see him._

Vivienne doesn't register the comment at first, slowly turning and feeling like that morning in San Francisco when a god was roused from sleep after a battle. Her breath hitches and she rears back in awe, hand flying to her muzzle. Godzilla is _much_ larger than she remembers. Taller and burlier, muscles more defined, his dorsal plates having a distinct maple leaf shape; imposing, powerful, terrifying, godlike; his scarred face hard, ferocious, but with a certain nobility. He locks gazes with her - with _her!_ \- and a crocodilian bellow rumbles from his throat in a sort of greeting. She quite literally lights up, much to Rodan's apparent amusement.

_Very happy! Like an eager male in rut!_

It takes all of three seconds for her brain to catch up and once she realizes the implication Vivienne lets out a voiceless squawk. She sputters, turns her head away and uses a hand to hide her face, not certain if she's still capable of blushing or if her vein-lights are color coded to express embarrassment. Right; bioluminescent flashes can be used to attract potential mates. Of _course_ it can. Why _wouldn't_ she have something like that? Rodan's raspy crow's laugh turns into a comical _AWWK!_ when the tip of Godzilla's tail slaps him.

San for his part can't seem to decide whether he wants to laugh or not. He's too busy droning - why is he doing that? Thor is quickly losing patience with San seemingly ignoring Godzilla's presence, so before he can stomp in Vivienne finally addresses him.

_Brother? What are you doing?_

The droning stops. Thor stops. San spares Vivienne an anxious look.

_ghidorah. it was talking._

Thor roars in outrage. _The Enemy is dead!_

_DEATHLESS!_ San shoots back with a hiss, flares his horns at Thor._ always comes back! ALWAYS! the head is the seat of the soul! the head is still in the metal cage! waiting listening healing! link was severed when deep one took off my head! thought the link was gone but heard it! bone singer - sister - saw the fight and saw ghidorah!_

_So that's how you still live,_ Rodan's growl is low and suspicious._ And what does Ghidorah find so special about one human?_

_Punishment,_ Vivienne says. Eyes lock onto her but she... suddenly she doesn't feel present. Rationally she is, but it doesn't feel like it. Maybe that psychotic episode, if that's what it was, scrambled something and she's too mentally exhausted to realize it, but even that doesn't sound right. There's a word for what she's experiencing, there must be, she just can't...

_Punishment for what?_

Oh, that's... Godzilla's talking to her - he's asking _her_ a question. Vivienne turns to look at him but for some reason she can only look at some point past his shoulder. She doesn't know why.

_I was containing it. Ghidorah didn't like that. Wanted to change me into another Ghidorah, remade in its own image. Punish me for keeping it under ice. It never wanted to kill or eat me._

San groans and his horns droop a little. _suffered. never hurt so much before. wanted it to stop. never stopped. not till now._

_Petty cruelty would be reason enough,_ Rodan huffs. _But is that all?_

_bone singer._ It doesn't sound like a definitive answer, though. The way San said it feels more like throwing out a guess, like he's not certain if ancestry is all there is to it or not. Besides, something occurs to Vivienne - shouldn't it be difficult for her to open up about that traumatic ordeal? Talking about it, reliving those memories, should be traumatic in and of itself, but it doesn't bother her. Wait... dissociation. That's the word she couldn't place before. Is that what this is?

Mothra nudges Vivienne's face and she just stares blankly into blue eyes.

_Are you here? Are you well?_

_I don't believe I am._

If a larva could sigh, Mothra would. _I fear things will not go easily for you. All the world may see you as an enemy and not all will be so understanding. If mankind were to rally in fear and hate of the Dragon, they will hunt for you. They will try to kill you. _

Vivienne shrugs. _Good luck with that._

Something in Mothra's countenance sharpens. It reminds Vivienne that she is sitting beside an ancient and powerful being that would challenge Ghidorah even in this form; whether as larva or imago, the Queen would rise up, look into the eyes of whatever demon dare show its face, and go to war. Even her next intonation has a steely undertone.

_You may have inherited his power, but you are not Ghidorah. You are not accountable for his atrocities, and I do not suffer unjust action upon my children._ Mothra shoots a pointed look at Rodan, who makes a sheepish noise. _This is your power now. And you may be taught to command it as such._

Vivienne tilts her head. _Are... you not going to?_

_I cannot, but you have three fine teachers at the ready, even if one of them lacks restraint. _

Rodan squawks incredulously, _I am to play teacher to this half-breed whelp?!_

_It would not be the first time you raised one outside your species,_ Mothra retorts with a cheeky tone. _But I must go - I am overdue._

Overdue? Ah, for pupating. That explains the change in coloration. Mothra scuttles over to Godzilla, where he bends down much as he can and bumps his snout against her head. She gives him a gentle nibble, quietly trills and coos at him. His piercing amber eyes flick to Vivienne and San then return to Mothra with a throaty bellow so soft it feels more like a purr, gives the larva an affectionate lick. Mothra chirps happily then turns and makes her way back to the rain forest, but doesn't go far when she looks back at Vivienne and San, gives them a beckoning chirrup.

_Your friends will want to know you are safe._

Vivienne blinks, wonders how that could have slipped her mind. She looks to the other three Titans uncertainly; remembering something she offers an upward palm to Thor, who slides stony digits down it. Vivienne thinks she ought to vocally apologize for losing control, but it seems Thor has already accepted it. With a grunt-bark and a nod he plants himself into a sitting position, bulky gauntlets resting on his folded legs. Suddenly feeling sheepish, Vivienne ducks her head at Godzilla and follows Mothra back to the sanctum.

The journey is a silent one. San seems content to just observe their surroundings, watch the sunset. Vivienne focuses on familiar faces; she's yet to see Mark, the Chens, or Brooks; wonders if Rick and Sam are still at Castle Bravo or if they're stationed at other outposts. A glance at Mothra reminds her at someone and there's a sudden lurch in her stomach.

Vivienne's mother, Susan Graham.

Just how far did the chaos Ghidorah cause extend? Did Susan Graham survive, and was she informed of her only daughter's apparent death? Or was she lost like Serizawa? Vivienne isn't certain she wants to know, doesn't know if her heart can take it, and even if her mother's survived that apocalyptic event it's doubtful anyone would allow a mentally unstable Ghidorah-human-chimera to just trek across the continent to pay one poor old lady a surprise visit. If her mother is still alive, or if she's dead, maybe... perhaps it's best if no one tells her Vivienne's come back from the grave...

She's brought back to the present by mandibles nibbling at her horns. There's something melancholic in Mothra's gaze as they stare at each other for a moment. Vivienne lowers her eyes to watch her hands; under the bone armor and claws and leathery hide, her hands are still so human-like. A reminder of what she used to be, of what was lost, of what she can never be again.

_I'm sorry._

_There is no need to apologize. And you need not explain if you don't want to._

_...I'm scared. I don't know what to do anymore._

_Have no fear. You will find a way. It's in your bones. It's in your soul._

* * *

The Yunnan outpost has been stuck in a tense ball of anxiety ever since Mothra suddenly scrambled out of the waterfall following Godzilla's call. Mark feels like he's trapped in a bag with cats and tries everything to maintain some semblance of cool, but his thoughts constantly return to Vivienne. _I should've talked to her. I should have talked to her. Why didn't I talk to her?_ But he knows why.

The second it's reported that Mothra and the chimera are coming back Mark finds himself charging for the catwalk to see, the Chens and Brooks having beaten him to it. Maddie soon stumbles in looking a little disoriented; she'd taken a much-needed break from the chaos, sticking herself in a quiet space in order to decompress. Even with her remarkable mental and emotional fortitude, there's only so much a teenager can take. Mothra crawls down the cliff first, heading straight for that empty shell the two-headed chimera hatched from; and speak of the devil, two reptilian heads peek out from the cliff face, watching in fascination how Mothra starts spinning silk around the shell. It only makes sense to utilize whatever materials are lying around. Madison makes a noise seeing how beat up she looks with slowly healing burns and regenerating chips in the horns.

A blare of feedback makes Mark jump out of his skin until he sees Brooks messing with the microphone. There's a pause before the drake slips down to meet them. A crackling _"hey"_ bursts from the ham radio, her eyes going from distant and tired to lighting up at the sight of her old friends. Ilene can't decide between laughing or sobbing.

"Graham, you asshole - you die on us, come back almost a year later turned into this, apparently get into a fight with Rodan, and all you can say is _'hey?'"_

The dinosaur head pulls an incredulous 'give me a break' face. The radio squeals with static and out comes a familiar voice that sends goosebumps up and down Mark's skin, distorted by slight bursts of interference.

_"Were you expecting a more dramatic Jesus resurrection?"_

Mark is momentarily stunned when the thing actually _crosses_ herself and makes a strange Gregorian chant-like humming. The features and clear expression of humor are so damnably human that he envisions _her_ doing it, imagines her voice and the dramatic Monty Python-styled delivery in faux Latin. And just to put a cherry on the audacity cake, she straightens back on her hindquarters and spreads both arms in a clear imitation of Christ the Redeemer. Everyone can't help but crack a laugh.

"Smartass," Brooks chuckles into the microphone. "I wish Rick was here - it'd be one hell of a comedy show."

_"Hello to you too, Houston. How's San?"_

In perfect comedic timing, the second head twists around with a puzzled warble, to which Brooks raises his eyebrows and quips, "Pretty sure your buddy ain't my wife."

Mark can't help but squeak in the middle of his unexpected giggle fit, isn't sure if it's a product of shock or everyone dicking around with an honest-to-god talking Titan, or both. He just knows he feels more at ease. Vivienne had always been so good at that.

"Jesus," Mark exhales, laughs a little harder when Vivienne actually cracks, _'yeah?'_ in response. The wise-ass. Now he knows where Madison gets it from. "It really is you. I would never have believed it. It's, uh... it's weird seeing you so, you know... tall."

There's a deep, consumptive coughing sound from Vivienne which Mark assumes is a chuckle, before the jovial mood is broken by the second head swiveling to look at the sky and droning low in its throat. Mark knows what Madison relayed - that the second head doesn't seem to remember Boston, let alone awakening slumbering Titans and asserting its dominance in the wake of Godzilla's defeat - but just looking at it causes loathing to surge in his chest. It may not remember that, but it remembers killing Vivienne. And how the hell can she be so chummy with that freak? He's about to open his mouth when Vivienne raises an uncomfortably human hand to stop him before he gets started, and to Mark's own admission that itself is an impressive feat.

_"I know."_ The electronic intonation leaves no room for debate.

"So you're just... okay with that thing being stuck to you like that? Is this one of those 'I can change him with my love' things people are so hot for?"

"Don't compare her to those shit books," Ling snaps.

The two-headed drake hefts her shoulders in a shrug. _"Humanity is contagious."_

"What's with the Tibetan monk gig, anyway?"

This time there's a harsher burst of static from the radio. The voice that comes out can only be called that very loosely; it reminds Mark of internet videos of people 'teaching' their cat or dog to 'talk,' but unlike those humorous clips there's an undeniable intelligence behind it. The second head is talking, in the sense that it knows what sounds the words make and what they mean, but doesn't fully understand the finer nuances like inflection or how to pace words with multiple syllables without sounding... alien.

_"Ghi-dor-ah. Lives."_

A beat.

"You're fucking kidding me," Mark blurts out. He already knows this from Mariko, but that doesn't make it any less a nightmare.

Something in Vivienne's character changes. Gone are the friendly eyes and smiling mouth, and in their place something... harder. Sharpened. Vivienne goes quiet the way she used to when someone had pissed her off enough, but now there's a dangerous edge to it. Mark forces himself to not back away, his zoologist mind registering not an old friend but a wild, unpredictable animal that can very easily kill a man with a flick of a finger. It's like seeing an old friend get shipped off to war overseas and when they come back, nothing is ever the same again.

The Vivienne Graham of old wouldn't have hurt a fly. _This_ Vivienne Graham has killed.

_"It talks. I felt it tugging at my brain. It's not finished with me, or Godzilla, or the world."_

_"Ne-ver-fin-ished"_

_"Never finished."_ For a brief moment that will stay with Mark long after he's closed his eyes to sleep, the reptilian face twists into a manic teeth baring grimace, wide greenish eyes staring through him at some eldritch thing that only the Titan before him can see. _"Ghidorah will keep on going after death as long as something is left of it."_

Mark hazards a glance towards the others and finds their faces ashen with the mind-numbing realization. There are Ghidorah samples in the world, who knows where, and who knows what effects they will have on anything. Aside from obvious suspects like Bio-Major or Red Bamboo, like that merc Tejada suggested, there's no telling who else got their hands on a piece of Ghidorah. If Monarch were to begin searching for those samples... Mark's gut sinks when he realizes that he doesn't know where he'd start. Or if he'd stop.

Mothra chirrups from the egg she's making her cocoon in. The dark Titan turns back into Vivienne and she pinches the bridge between brows and snout. They exchange low sounds, the radio quietly sending out long strings of static, but nothing intelligible.

"What's she saying?" Ilene asks.

Vivienne reaches a hand out and Mothra nibbles at her knuckles before ducking into her cocoon. The dinosaur head stares at her hand for a moment, fingers flexing idly before clenching them into a fist. Despite the sharpened countenance, her eyes are resigned.

_"That I have... inherited power. That I can fight on their level. And to not be afraid."_

The second head stops droning, looks at Vivienne from the corner of his eye. After seeing Godzilla and Ghidorah fight to the death in Boston nearly a year ago, this new Titan looks so... small. Smaller than Kong was just decades ago. More than another head, it seems like a terrible responsibility and burden rests on her shoulders. She takes a deep breath and stands up; once again Mark is reminded of the soldier analogy, but it doesn't sound right to him. Bad enough that she had to die so suddenly and cruelly, but to be forced into a new way of life, a new existence? It's not fair.

He has to tell her, to let it out before it festers inside him for any longer. Mark grabs the microphone, and not for the first time since that night wishes he'd been the one to...

"I need to get something off my chest," he whispers into the microphone, not trusting himself to speak any higher than that. "You know I'm not a very popular person in Monarch. I still have that anti-Titan reputation hanging over my head. I'll open my mouth and people look at me like... what's the thing they say now? I'm 'back on my bullshit?'"

Vivienne stares at him, not knowing where he's going with this.

"Some of them blame me. Said if I wasn't so slow, you'd still... they never say it to my face. But I hear things." Mark can no longer maintain eye contact, especially not when the main head looks at him like that, a paw - _hand_ at her mouth like that. "Well, they're right. I know they're right because it _is_ my fault. Tough man living in the mountains, my only friends are wolves, and I couldn't even lift some goddamn cables. And when Godzilla was bombed, I... I've never felt like such a piece of shit in my life. I never shut up about wanting the big lizard dead and when it finally happened I just felt wrong. Like that was my fault too."

"Dad," Madison tries but he keeps going.

"I know, in my head I know it wasn't my fault, but in my gut? I should've been the one who died that night, not you."

Brooks drops a hand on his shoulder. "Mark, hey..." 

Mark's voice cracks and his eyes burn. "People _hate_ me, Viv! Nobody says my name without thinking about the massive asshole I was when you guys picked me up! You should have survived! _You_ should have been with Serizawa before he died, _you_ should have seen Mothra kick Rodan's ass, _you_ should have seen Godzilla come back and kill that monster—"

_"Mark, no."_

"You should be taking care of Maddie! God knows you were more of a mother than Emma was! I shouldn't even be here - I don't - I should have died instead!"

His ears are blasted by an explosion of sound - a lion or a tiger roaring, but at its center is a rough, higher sound that he instinctively recognizes as a human voice trailing into an alien warble. Mark, Madison, Brooks, and the Chens are thrown off their feet from the force of the roar and Mark gets the idea that he really, _really_ picked a bad time for an impromptu group therapy session. Every muscle in his body clenches in primitive fear when flashing eyes glower and two rows of teeth are bared in a snarl at him, red flaring from her veins and muscles tensed. The ham radio screams with static as the roar echoes around for miles and he can feel the growl drumming from the beast above him.

When Vivienne - no, the Titan - talks through the radio again, those jaws open and close in a horrifying parody of human speech:

_"BE THANKFUL YOU'RE ALIVE. BE THANKFUL YOU DIDN'T GET HIS ATTENTION. BE **THANKFUL** YOU DID NOT SUFFER **AS WE SUFFERED.** DO NOT TALK TO ME ABOUT DEATH. GHIDORAH DID NOT GRANT ME THAT KINDNESS. SO CONSIDER: IF YOU DIED, WHAT WOULD THAT ACCOMPLISH?"_

Mark can't answer. The fact that the radio is starting to spark from the intensity of the rebuke leaves him too afraid to respond. The Titan steps away and takes several breaths, lets out a shuddering exhale. Both heads turn to the horizon where a trumpeting call echoes from afar, then the main head regards the collapsed humans staring at them. Words, now whisper-soft and more than a little distorted, squeak out of the radio.

_"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to scare you. Just... please, never talk like that again. Please."_

Mark can only nod his head shakily.

Vivienne heaves a sigh, clambers back up the cliff. The abused ham radio manages to relay one last message before dying.

_"We have to go. You know how to find us."_

* * *

_You're very quiet._

San makes a distracted noise as they return north to the mountainsides where Godzilla and the others are waiting. Vivienne can sense his anxiety, smells how afraid he is to have this conversation. She can't blame him because, to be honest, she's just as terrified. How does she even begin talking about how the one she considers a brother just caused her to relive the single worst moment of her entire life? He's not ready to talk, and that's okay. They'll have to eventually, just... not now. They can't always be strong.

Godzilla's watching the stars by the time they arrive. Still anxious without knowing why, Vivienne maintains a safe distance. It's not until Godzilla grunts when she comes closer; his scent is the same as the last time she was this close to him. Leather, sea salt, earthy and briny. She's surprised when a blunt snout leans down and sniffs at her like two dogs meeting at the park. She won't admit it, but she's a little curious about what she smells like to a Titan. Godzilla thrums at her.

_You smell like... him. Old friend._

What the...? Who cold he be referring... oh. The memory flashes - the morning after that battle in San Francisco, Godzilla blearily opening his eyes and looking down at them, seeing _him._ She'd been too enraptured at the time to notice, being so close to the ancient warrior-beast, but in hindsight recalls the exaltation in Serizawa's face. Jaw growing heavy she stares up into amber-colored eyes and tries not to blink, knowing that if she does she's going to break down all over again. Godzilla's expression noticeably softens.

_Was he your friend? Your mate?_

_...father._

He looks down and when he sighs it sounds like the earth shifting. _ I was at my weakest. He came to me. The first of his kind in... a_ _very long time. Too long. The city was too deep and too dangerous. I could smell the air eating him, killing him... still he came to me. Gave of himself everything and restored me. Good and noble. I am sorry._

Vivienne struggles to keep it together, tries to swallow it down with humor. _I'm sorry he blew up your home._

_The whole ocean is my home. And now it is his home. You will see him again._

She averts her eyes, finds that she'd been writing the first character of Serizawa's name in the ground. Despite the stab of hurt she erases it with a swift brush of her palm. Nothing left of him but memories. Her vision blurs and San groans at the hurt in their chest.

Godzilla grunts. _ You don't believe it._

_Can't._

_Have you died before?_

Vivienne squints up at him quizzically. What kind of question is that? How would she even know?

_Do you believe yourself, Mothra, and Ghidorah the only ones who came back from death? Everything dies. Everything comes back. Life is lost, but those most precious to us... they are never lost. They live on here..._ he scratches at his chest. _Or find new life._

There's a pause. San glances around and spies Thor sleeping where they'd seen him last. He doesn't see Rodan anywhere but catches his scent, so he must be nearby. Vivienne presses a hand to her mouth, a tic she holds onto even now.

Godzilla rumbles. _We will begin teaching you at sunrise._ He notices her stiffening and grunts again. _You are afraid. Why._

It takes Vivienne a moment to answer, memories of the day rushing back to her. Harnessing the storm only twice after awakening it, and it's exhilarating, incredible - how it makes the blood dance in her veins, she's never had such a high before - but... 

_It's... this... the rush, the power, it's so much. It feels good, but it doesn't feel right. Like it's not really mine. I don't have control. I'm scared that if I use it too much, if I start to enjoy it any more than necessary, I'll... I won't be me anymore. So much of me is already changed._

Godzilla stares at her and she notices how tired and world-weary he looks just now; like he doesn't look at her so much as through her.

_Wise to be afraid. You do not know our ways. You were not born to fight but are forced to._

_But you enjoy fighting._

Godzilla's eyes snap into clarity with startling speed and for the first time Vivienne is a little afraid of him. She can't read him, can't tell if he's angered or just distantly annoyed by her assumption. She remembers seeing footage of him in Honolulu; his stance, his roar, his smirk. That had struck her as him approaching his first fight in who knows how long. There was none of those things in Antarctica. 

Godzilla growls at her,_ What you did was not combat between warriors. That teaches discipline and restraint. What you inherit from Ghidorah came from war. That is a monster. Hungry and greedy, bottomless. Takes away who we used to be and eats it._

That word again. Did she inherit it? It feels more like it was dumped on her. 

_You inherit it and that makes it YOURS now. No one else's. YOURS. Good, bad? Words. Power is a tool. You decide how to use it. But mind you don't start trouble. Might have to rough you up._

Was... did Godzilla just crack a joke at her? Maybe it's just the natural Glasgow grin on a reptilian face, but it almost feels like Godzilla is smirking at her. Vivienne swallows a lump in her throat and chuckles, somewhat nervously.

_I wasn't planning to..._

_Good. But there are times you will have to fight in earnest. So if you must fight, then fight. If you must kill, then kill. But only if necessary. To wage war when it isn't needed, is not something to celebrate. Begrudge war. Hate war. Do not close your heart to it. If you see another way, take it. A time may come when you will have to protect little ones. Young, or humans. Protect them like they are your children, and they will remember. They will run to your aid when you need it._

His piercing gold eyes stare into her green ones. Then she remembers something she'd used to compare a symbiotic relationship between Man and Titan: the fable of the lion and the mouse. Her hearts skip a beat realizing that Godzilla, king of all monsters, understands such a concept. Maybe this is why she'd been so anxious to get too close - more than a god to worship, the way he looks and speaks to her is almost what she imagines a father to be like. Perhaps it's no coincidence she looks to him and sees a bit of Serizawa.

He raises a claw to his powerful chest. _Here, you are strong. Passion, drive. But useless without this._ Godzilla gestures to her head and San's. He and San lock eyes and he leans in. Vivienne is so used to seeing human men get in each other's space to assert some crackpot alpha male dominance that she's surprised to see none of that here. She can detect wariness in Godzilla, but he holds it back in favor of paternal sternness.

_You take care of her. She will take care of you. You must be better than **them.** _

San's mouth opens but nothing comes out at first. He studies Godzilla's gaze, this behemoth who fought him so many times in the past, willing to let that go in the face of his relationship with Vivienne. His red eyes turn a little misty.

_i will be better._

Godzilla makes an approving noise. _Now, rest. _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ᛟ - Othala. "Heritage." The twenty-third rune. It represents home, familial ties, and wealth. It is a rune of numinous power and spiritual knowledge bequeathed by our ancestors.


	10. Kenaz

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well... ten chapters, friends! To be honest, I'd originally planned to end things around the eighth or ninth chapter but it just took on a mind of its own, as is its want. For those interested here's some sketches and what-could-have-beens over on my tumblr: https://hrodvitnon.tumblr.com/post/616668234453794816/abraxas-chapter-10-special-shit  
The story's not over yet, but for all of you who've been reading and sticking with it throughout this long, strange journey, thank you.

ᚲ

_“Eros and Thanatos are branches on the same old tree  
Rooted in the soil of shadow and light  
If God was separated from the dark twin, the Devil  
Could he ever know the soul of mankind?_

_We want a new god called Abraxas!”_

[—Therion](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQxPozI8IDA)

* * *

Sleep remains elusive. It feels like she can only manage a few minutes of shut-eye before finding herself staring at nothing. It's not even like the time spent in that chamber when unending physical pain was distraction on its own; it's actually rather strange to not be in pain, to not have to move at a snail's crawl or to not worry about snapping her own limbs like twigs just because she'd move too quickly or carelessly. The absence of pain isn't the only reason, of course. It's her illness - and she _is_ mentally ill. Who wouldn't be, after what she's been through? 

Vivienne recalls the days and weeks of her old life, the access and means to help a person find sleep: pills, shots of alcohol, milk or tea, the old-timey tricks her grandmother would have taught her - and the Graham family has always been full of scientific pursuits and hokey old-timey tricks in equal measure. None of those things may be enough to help her now. No doctor's appointments, no treatment, no prescription or medicine. It's not like a Titan can just mosey on up to the nearest treatment center and set up an appointment, though the mental image makes her laugh: she imagines a bubbly secretary speaking to something the size of a building, 'we have two openings next Wednesday, would you prefer 9:45 am or 2 o'clock pm, Dr. Graham?' 2 pm sounds lovely, Doris. I'll see you in a week.

Her horns start undulating like San's when he's droning, either making noise to drown out that invasive signal from Ghidorah or to distract her from it. Not that it helps much. The tingle from that signal is still there in the back of her mind, at the nape of her neck, bringing her back to a time when shadows in a dark room were capable of anything - of lunging out or slashing her to ribbons, or simply content to stand in the corners and watch. Once or twice she catches something vibrating in her ear; that all too familiar force or voice. No malicious blasts at her gray matter though, and no venom spitting at the back of her eyes.

Like it's just reminding her.

Vivienne's claws itch to carve into the ground; that ritual she brought back from the chamber now serves as a mantra to keep that thing out. Fehu, uruz, thurisaz, ansuz, raidō, kenaz, gebō, wunjo, hagalaz, naudhiz, isa—

The signal rolls up the back of her neck like a shudder.

_Piss off,_ she thinks. _I'm not listening._

...

_go away._

_SHE WANTS THE OLD MAN BACK so sad so pitiful **CRYING OVER A CORPSE** sad curious useless_

_piss off. not listening._

_you're just a replacement **THAT'S ALL YOU ARE**_

_piss off cunts. not. listening._

_you try so hard **USELESS WASTE** you and her will come back to us NO USE SHUTTING US OUT_

_PISS OFF CUNTS. I'M NOT LISTENING._

_we will never let you go_

* * *

Dr. Ling's notes:

5/23/20

Cleanup op is about to begin. Samples will be taken in for analysis. She needs a name but don't know what yet. Brooks has a few ideas but doesn't think they fit or doesn't want to hint at her nature. Seems nervous. Can't blame him. People must be frightened of the second head. She seems to like him, though I can't think why. Pretty sure she had better taste in men than that. And women.

Addendum: On-site security has apprehended photojournalist and confiscated items. Apparently entire teams of "Titan paparazzi" have been causing trouble for security the last few days. Going to keep him in holding with Mariko. Still need to figure out what to do with her.

* * *

They're jerked out of whatever sleep is managed by a massive wet slap and a strong smell of sea salt; both heads pivot and spy Rodan, having returned from wherever he vanished off to with a recently killed shark. He stares at them expectantly.

_I'll not feed you out of my mouth._

Oh - for them? When _was_ the last time they'd eaten? Vivienne reaches out to take the shark lying at Rodan's talons, and is startled when his jagged beak snaps at her fingers. Again she and Rodan stare each other down. She tries once more and is met with another sudden lunge, then another, and another. Godzilla winks one eye open to watch from his spot where he's been napping.

_We can do that too,_ Vivienne hisses in annoyance and snaps her own jaws.

_So I see. _ Rodan huffs and leans in to San's face. _What have you taught her?_

San narrows his eyes. _not enough. but. sister is clever. can learn fast._

_Much talk! _Rodan swipes a talon at Vivienne when she tries sneaking the shark under his and San's noses, throws his head back when San takes a retaliatory lunge. _I know YOU are capable, serpent! But SHE must learn!_ Rodan's fiery eyes lower to Vivienne's. _Forget your old ways. They will earn you little in this life. Consider this your first lesson, whelp._

Ah. Think like an animal, then? Vivienne pins Rodan with a serious look and decides to try whatever comes to mind. First she raises her tail like a scorpion, rattles the forked ends; the avian Titan notices but doesn't take the bait. His eyes roam her and San's shared body, scanning for the slightest movement, waiting for something. San isn't giving her any mental tips - maybe he feels it important for her to learn these things on her own, and she appreciates his confidence in her. Maybe if she takes a moment to examine Rodan like he is with her, she can figure something out. Almost immediately something stands out; a scar at his chitin armored chest. Vivienne remembers the rhino-like horn on her head, and gets an idea.

She feigns reaching for the shark again, and when Rodan begins snapping at her she jumps into his space and rams her horn towards the scar. With a surprised cry Rodan backs away before Vivienne can bring her claws into that old wound, but she doesn't let up. Knowing he'd keep antagonizing her, Vivienne keeps marching into his space making loud barks or yawps, hissing and spitting at the much larger Titan. Godzilla thrums in approval and Rodan keeps stepping back, gives her a raspy chuckle.

_Good! But you've a long way to go yet. Eat._

Vivienne backs away, keeping her eyes on Rodan anticipating a trick, and when none presents itself she and San return to the shark. She goes to take a bite out of the meat but stops, looks to San and hums at him.

_what?_

_You've eaten less than me. Go ahead._

San blinks at her. She bumps her nose under his chin. He takes the first bite and she follows after; idly she wonders about their diet, if their metabolism allows them to go extended periods without eating. Just a few bites and the shark is consumed entirely between them. While Vivienne licks her lips like a cat, San stares at the space their food once occupied, and it doesn't take a genius to understand he is deep in thought. He asks her an unexpected question:

_who is the lady?_

_What lady?_

_the one in your dreams. memories. can't tell._

There's a pang in their chest, dim recollections of a vision that came to her in sleep. Yes, she had dreamed of a lady. Graying hair in a bun, the scent of sandalwood, warm brown eyes, and a smile so bright it's as if it collected sunlight. Neighbors used to comment how Vivienne resembled her mother, but Susan Graham had always asserted she takes more after her late father in eyes and face. Childhood memories come back in foggy snapshots; every embrace and kiss on the cheek and pet name, every firm but gentle chastisement for troubles or mistakes, every smile beaming with pride. Vivienne presses both sets of teeth into her tongue, blinks rapidly.

_She's my mother._

_mother. what is. you have a mother?_

Have, had, she doesn't know. Doesn't want to get her hopes up. Briefly she recalls the time San first opened his mind to her - she only went as far back into his memories as the imprisonment under ice, but that can only be a fraction of what he remembers. Vague snippets come to her in flashes, of entire worlds turned into howling tempests. She has to wonder... obviously San - _Ghidorah_ \- must have a place he once considered home or at least shelter. Is Ghidorah a totally unique lifeform or just one member of an entire species? Or an endling, like Godzilla?

_San, do you... did you have a mother?_

_no._

_But you had to come from someone. Do you remember being small? A baby?_

There's a pause as San sifts through his own memories.

_hatched from egg in dark place. had to break free from egg or die without being born. had to run from egg or die. we are so big and strong grown. many many brothers and sisters. all gone. eaten. hunters that cannot eat us grown eat us small. brothers and sisters eaten because they were slow. weak._

His tone is unconcerned, clinical, just rattling off facts of life. Vivienne is reminded of sea turtles, the way they leave their eggs and the hatched newborns must race to the sea or be eaten by predatory birds, and when those turtles are grown the process is repeated again and again and again. Circle of life. In that way he seems a little less alien, more familiar to her like an animal - albeit intelligent enough for conversation - and she can understand. She has always been enticed by aspects of nature that would seem monstrous to others.

Her green eyes meet his red ones.

He has probably never questioned the nature of things, not once has he stopped and asked himself, 'must it be this way?' Sure as stars in the night sky, there has always been the certainty that this is just how the universe works. It _must_ be this way. Just as San had escaped death's jaws to live another day, Vivienne herself was eaten like so many would-be siblings. Another turtle snatched up by a hungry bird. But the idea of Ghidorah being small and helpless, even mortal, having _natural predators,_ is a difficult one for her to understand. Her memories of Ghidorah, painted in trauma and nightmare hallucination, are not of an alien or animal but a _thing. _Hungry, immortal.

A sudden incoming smell of ozone triggers a split-second recollection - had she been downed as quickly as the shark just now? - and rot builds up at the back of her throat, the rancid aftertaste permeating her mouth, where it will crash against her teeth and be vomited out. Only nothing happens. She doesn't even cough. The rank stench in her mouth was never there. Thor stands in front of them and she blinks, fairly certain she hadn't even seen him anywhere upon waking up, and she wonders how the hell he managed to sneak up on her like that. Or more likely, he hadn't been sneaking at all, she just never noticed in that wave of nausea.

_Little ones are coming,_ Thor informs them.

What for, Vivienne is about to ask but her brain kicks into gear. Right. Damage from the scuffle with Rodan yesterday (sure, let's go with that), Monarch coming in, maybe to collect samples that would've been chipped off during the thick of it. Keep any scavengers from getting their hands on something they shouldn't. They'll also probably want to take notes of her and San interacting with the others, take body scans and the like.

_You are..._ Thor hesitates, like he doesn't know the words. _In your head. Out of your head._

_Off my head,_ Vivienne adds and inwardly she keeps going. Off _with_ my head. Going to play football with the lads. Be back by supper. No I didn't forget the ball, I brought my head. Maybe whimsy will do in place of therapy, at least until someone decides to invent Titan Therapy. She looks up at Thor and bites back a laugh when she suddenly pictures him with square glasses perched precariously on his stony mask, sitting cross-legged on a cushy chair, taking notes while she lies on a chaise longue rambling through her life story.

Thor tilts his head at her like a puzzled dog. _Are you well enough for this?_

A beat.

_...I have to be._

Thor grunts, takes a seat before her and San. Vivienne wants to mentally prepare herself for two things; first is whatever may happen if and when she taps into the storm again - both times having lost herself in a berserk frenzy. Thor, Rodan, and even Godzilla are supposed to be teaching her control, and for that she needs a controlled environment. Second is the undisputed fact that she is no longer human and must learn to exist as such, but still hold on to her humanity. She recalls Godzilla's lesson from last night. If she is to someday fight or kill, and there's no doubt she already _has_ killed, then she must learn how. Hesitation cannot be allowed any further.

Must it be this way?

Yes. It must be.

_How do you wake your storm?_ Thor asks her.

Vivienne gnaws on her lip; at first she thinks that signal is tingling again but it's just the ghost of goosebumps from recalling that red haze. Anxiety begins building up but she tries to squash it down - no room for that in this new life. Force it down. Focus.

_Hate._

_Aught else?_

Vivienne glances to San and he looks uncertain. There had been brief sparks when she'd gotten angry back in the chamber but not enough to really do anything, whereas hatred and bloodlust had gotten results. Thor lifts his great hands up with palms facing her and San, something that reminds her of a boxing coach; once more she is pinned by an expectant look.

_Am I to hit you?_

_If you can._ Thor huff-grunts at her in the chimp or gorilla way of laughing.

Relaxing somewhat, Vivienne leans back on her haunches and as a test gives one hand a limp slap. Thor grunts. This time she balls one hand into a fist and throws a punch, to which Thor slaps it away. He grunts at her again. Vivienne throws a left hook and it's also deflected with a harder slap; _again;_ she delivers a one-two, both knocked aside; now growing annoyed Vivienne brings more force into a faster punch but is nearly thrown off balance when Thor pushes it back. Vivienne's given a surprise when a big stone finger prods her once and starts repeatedly poking her, like some schoolboy getting under her skin for no reason than to get a rise out of her. Well, it's working. She shows her teeth in warning but Thor keeps going. That settles it then. Vivienne tries to attack the hand but is pinned down by the other, not enough to hurt.

_No good,_ Thor rumbles. _Again._

The poking and prodding recommences and when Vivienne tries retaliating she's pinned down like before; _weak, again;_ she attempts dodging the incoming digits but is pushed aside; _slow, again;_ she's starting to get frustrated and feels a familiar tingle going up and down her limbs but can't focus - she yelps and a stab of pain shoots to her head, San swiveling around and spies Rodan having snuck up on them and nipped at their tail. He hisses and swats at the volcanic Titan but Rodan catches their tail in his beak and tugs - hard.

That does it. Vivienne and San spin about-face and slash at Rodan, where he releases their tail and backs away in a repeat of earlier - another yank at their tail, this time from Thor, and the tingle turns into an almost burning sensation; now when they spin back around it's accompanied by a thunderclap, leaping so fast and suddenly she gets whiplash, almost doesn't register the hard impact of slamming into Thor's torso but she does recognize the feeling of collapsing to the ground at his feet. She tries to get up but is so dizzy from the head rush she just falls back down; soon a sense of exhilaration floods through her, washes through the anger. Somewhere beyond her field of vision Thor is chimp-laughing again. At least someone's having a good time.

Both Thor and Rodan peer down at them comically, that smartass bird looking ever so pleased with himself. Vivienne would flip him off but figures he wouldn't understand the gesture. She's about to ask what in hell just happened but whatever it was must be pleasing based on how Thor nods and folds his arms.

_Woke it up with hate, but anger is just as good. Controlled, precise. Better._

Once sense reorients itself Vivienne and San stare at each other.

_Do you know what just happened?_

_not certain. not like brothers' storm. but. it was fun! again!_

* * *

Madison looks up in some surprise when someone she doesn't know is escorted onto the facility by Monarch guards. A tall white man looking between forty-something and fifty-something-else parks himself into the seat opposite of her, fingers drumming his knees; one of the guards is holding a camera. She, her father, Mariko plus her own guard, along with Brooks, and the Chens all give the man a collective look of 'who the hell are you?' The man quirks his mouth into an awkward smile and waves a little.

"Uh... hi. Steve Martin - no relation to _that_ Steve Martin. Photojournalist." When he talks it's with a baritone straight from the golden age of Hollywood. "This might sound strange, but I was a big fan of Dr. Serizawa's work."

"Oh," Mark says and turns to Brooks. "Should we tell him Serizawa's not around to do autographs?"

"Didn't bring my ouija board anyway," Martin cracks, not missing a beat.

One of the guards explains, "Guy came with a whole gaggle of Titan paparazzi, causing trouble ever since Thor showed up. Already snapped pictures by the time we caught him. You at least get their good sides?"

"You took my camera, you tell me." Martin shrugs at everyone staring at him. "Hey, where do you think news outlets get all the photos and footage from? The pay's not bad if you're a good shot, and taking a photo helps me think of what to write. Speaking of, I actually wrote this article a while back..."

Brooks interrupts, "I'm sorry, but what are you even doing here?"

"I was looking for work in Kunming when Thor showed up and carpooled with some folks looking to make a quick buck. Two Titans plus whatever the red guy brought with him will make a good paycheck. But once Godzilla and Rodan showed up we started getting careless, making mistakes. I was trying to shoot some footage of Monster X this morning when this badass here snagged me and confiscated the goods."

Everyone glances at each other in confusion.

Mark is the first to ask, "Monster X?"

"Oh, right - it's what people are calling that new Titan, the one with the two heads. Sounds like an energy drink to me, but I guess it's supposed to be like Ghidorah's old designation, Monster Zero. You know?"

"People actually named her?" Ling wants to look surprised but her tone implies she isn't. "We haven't even named her yet."

"Twitter's a hell of a thing."

Madison whips out her phone at this comment. 

"And, that's partly why I'm here now, why I didn't try to get away when the jig was up. Folks are scared." Martin's face sobers and he leans forward. "People want to know if Monster X is going to be like Ghidorah, and some are demanding Monarch should kill it off - or _her_ off, rather. Like they conveniently forgot the last time someone tried that. Now, I don't know what to make of it. I got some footage of what happened with Rodan—"

"Oh my god," Mark buries his face in both hands.

"But, I don't know if anyone else did, or how much they caught. But if you ask me? Dangerous as Monster X might be, I... well, I think she was just scared. I've interviewed a lot of people since last year, couple of them flew at me because I got stupid and said the wrong thing, and I don't know why but that mess from yesterday reminded me of that. Guess I just want to encourage people to have an open mind, but..."

"Be ready for anything?" Ling suggests, to which Martin nods.

Madison's face darkens after a moment of scrolling. "Fuckin' people."

"Lot of people spouting bullshit?" Martin asks.

"Yeah. Call-outs, 'grrr kill big monster' posts, memes, the works. Honestly, it kinda gives me a weird feeling. I mean, this sort of thing was happening last year when everything went down and the world almost ended. And now..." Madison trails off, not sure it'd be smart to go blurting out things like rampant Ghidorah samples in front of some sneaky journalist.

"Well, on the plus side, no more dragons straight from John Carpenter's The Thing, right?" Martin smiles, none the wiser.

Mariko winces.

"So what kind of footage do you have?" Brooks asks.

"Not much. Just some bits of the fight from yesterday but couldn't get a good angle, not with those jackasses around almost getting us caught. But I did get a video of Monster X sort of play-fighting with Thor. Pretty cool stuff. I guess you guys wanna check it out for research, huh?"

The guards bring Martin to an unoccupied PC where he can set things up. Soon there's a small album of photographs on display, some of which might end up circulating on the web, but of greater interest are the video recordings.

Mark stares at the shaky, grainy footage. The creature he once knew as Vivienne Graham in a blind rampage, furious red light glaring from its limbs - reminds him of Godzilla curb-stomping Ghidorah, but with nowhere near the level of control. The recording deteriorates into static as the bone-armored drake collapses into a shrieking wreck. Beside him, Brooks has a serious almost angry look as he studies the image for himself. Ilene and that woman from the Russian outpost, Mariko, watch from behind them. Martin stands off to the side so they can 'do their thing' in his words.

"Why do you think that happened?" Mark asks.

Brooks doesn't answer. He opens a manila file, pulls up a print-out of the initial brain scan back when Monster X had been incubating. Mark rubs his mouth; it bothers him how easily he can refer to Vivienne by that new name, like she's not _her_ anymore, but after their last encounter it's clear that both physically and mentally she is not what she used to be. She may never be again.

Mariko says, "This isn't her first time going into a rage state. Actually, the first time this happened was because some jack-hole got the bright idea to piss her off enough and got turned into red paint for his trouble. She couldn't even use her electric abilities then. Then again, we think the second head took control at that point. This is all her, though. And it doesn't seem like anger."

"This isn't my field," Brooks adds, "but my guess it's a physical reaction to trauma. Rewind it for me - up to Thor and Rodan fighting - there."

It's difficult to see with the sudden burst of visual tearing, but one can make out the image of Rodan caught in a grapple with Thor; smoke and arcs of electricity initially brings to mind a volcanic eruption, but Ilene turns pale and covers her mouth. She remembers the Argo's mad dash into a hurricane, fleeing from one demon only to come face-to-face with a leering devil.

"It looks like Ghidorah," she breathes shakily. "That was a fear reaction."

"Oh," Mariko murmurs, then her dark eyes widen. "Oh! Do you think...? Maybe it's because something in her brain got scrambled, like a fight or flight response? I've heard when people get flashbacks it's like they're reliving the memories all over again - and her body responds to that and decides to fight?"

"Could be. We'd have to get in close and makes some scans to be sure, though."

Plus a means to ask Vivienne herself, Brooks thinks. They move on to the footage shot this morning; Martin had been right in the sense that it looks like play-fighting, but if Vivienne being able to talk with Mothra is any indicator it's possible Thor might be instructing her in some way. After Rodan enters there's a flash and suddenly Thor is almost toppled over with Monster X apparently having crashed into him with startling force. Mariko makes a surprised noise and they rewind the footage, replay it in slow motion; here it's somewhat clearer that at the point Monster X spins and leaps there's a surge of light that races down her hind legs and releases in an arc flash. Up until she collides with Thor everything else is a blur.

"Hey, that trick there. That jumpy thunder thing. Didn't she do that in the last video?"

Martin checks the previous footage, and sure enough. The same thing happens, only instead of a flat-footed horizontal leap it's like a cat ready to spring onto a counter top and is propelled by some electric burst. Martin leans in to watch, whispering out a quiet 'cool.'

"This might be a shot in the dark," Brooks says, "but has anyone seen what happens when you get electrocuted?" When everyone shakes their head in the negative he elaborates. "One time a couple years back we had an electric panel in contact with water from a broken pipe. I went with someone to reset the circuit breaker and once he flipped the lights, guy was blown back like six feet and knocked out." Brooks arcs a finger through the air and whistles for emphasis. "Swear to god. Dude went flying. Even had a flash like that going from him to the breaker."

"This must be something similar," Ilene notes. "Would an electric shock cause involuntary muscle contractions?"

"That's if there's direct stimulus to the muscles, and those are already controlled by electrical impulses. The body normally limits muscle contractions to prevent injury, but a direct pulse to the muscles causes a contraction that's much stronger than usual. Maybe she can learn to do that voluntarily?"

"Jesus," Mark exhales. She's so tiny compared to Thor, but launch at the right spot and she might one day knock him down. "Like a jet-propelled honey badger."

Madison laughs. "I want t-shirts of that now. Monster X don't give a fuck."

Everyone chuckles at the idea, but it peters out quickly realizing it would likely take years before Monster X would achieve such a reputation, not to mention mastery of her own capabilities.

* * *

remember he remembers something long ago very very long ago before the deep one before this world and many many worlds before he and brothers were all before ghidorah was the destroyer of worlds he remembers being small not right it's not right the feeling is the same when he saw through sister's memories why he doesn't like being so small and weak not right not safe he doesn't know why but he remembers something sister thinks of dark things violent things not bad thoughts just thoughts but they remind him he once thought dark and violent things too when he was small when he was

_one_

one only one he was singular one head maybe but not alone never alone brothers were there all that was left so many eggs more than counting but he and brothers survived no one else wait were there others he can't remember so so very long ago were he and brothers one body then can't remember he remembers being _one_ so confusing so strange difficult to see to remember anything more but he and brothers were _we_ he thinks so we were alone after all the dead and gone no one else no mother what is mother sister has a mother but she isn't certain why she has mother or has no mother what is a mother is it like the life bringer she called him and sister her children is that mother we never had mother we had nothing for long time

nothing is our mother

...

By now it's clear what she and San are capable of, but the trouble is it's difficult for them to harness it as easily as Thor can. Not in all her forty-three years (forty-four? what even day is it?) has Vivienne needed to learn a lesson like this; she's gotten angry before, yes, but that had been the anger of someone who would need to bring force into words without appearing childish or overly emotional to her peers. Even then that had been a difficult state for her to achieve. She recalls a moment from the events of 2014 when Stenz (she desperately hopes to never cross paths with that man again) immediately settled on the nuclear option when there must have been so many others on the table. That had been disbelief and incredulity, but frustration in her gut had been stewing into a fury completely foreign to her - the kind that makes getting physical very tempting.

At the time she'd just left the room. Now... now, Vivienne imagines the admiral's broken and twisted body on the floor with his head staring slack-jawed up at her with unseeing eyes. That alone would be easy for a human. Won't even need a weapon. Fuck. It doesn't seem that long ago when such thoughts left her unable to keep down food, now it just feels like a distasteful but inevitable, even necessary thing to deal with. Godzilla himself hadn't thought twice when he blasted that female Muto's head off way back when. Vivienne flexes her fingers and stares, imagines the head of some mighty beast held between them after a long battle.

Claim the enemy's head to claim their power.

theheadistheseatofthesoul

_San. How many heads have you and your brothers claimed?_

His eyes roll upwards thoughtfully. _many. don't know. claimed heads of deep ones._

Vivienne's almost relieved when that idea makes her insides churn. She hopes she dies before seeing something like that happen. Her gaze turns back to Godzilla, still in a catnap or just basking in the sun - he's to teach her alongside Thor and Rodan, but she doesn't have the heart to wake him. Part of her wants to rest beside him but decides that's too much too fast. She's no child, but on the other hand she might as well be an infant compared to these ancient beings.

_i think. i remember something._

Her attention turns back to San. _What?_

His horned brows are furrowed in concentration. _i think. brothers were alone. mother. what is mother?_

_A mother raises her young. She hunts to feed them and protects them from predators, teaches them how to survive. When they are strong enough to live on their own she weans them. She cares for her children._

San is quiet for a moment. _no mother. we had no one. had to learn on our own. eldest brother had to teach. alone for long long time. many predators and hunters. so many weak little things to eat. but. i think. little ones came from somewhere. don't know where. there was a cage._

_Little ones... like I used to be?_

_maybe._

Vivienne stares at him, scientific curiosity overcoming her. Obviously he's an alien creature from another planet but that phrase, _little ones_ \- she'd never considered the idea of a human analogue, always figured the pop culture image of gray-skinned visitors with bulbous heads was just a conspiracy theory pipe dream, the punch line to a tired joke everyone's heard. 'Cage' implies captivity. She remembers her and San's early days in a cramped chamber, his words about Ghidorah's middle head - _eldest brother hated you for containing us_ \- and gets a sinking feeling.

_What did they do to you?_

_don't remember. bad things. maybe. eldest brother hated them all. elder brother became angrier. this one. i watched. i think they wanted us angry. or strong. maybe both. made us kill. nothing new to us. wanted us to destroy. they let us out. destroyed what they wanted. then we destroyed them. did bad things to us. so we do bad things to them. i do bad things. we do it again. again and again and again. sometimes i see little ones. get curious. brothers hated that. eat little ones. only good for food or fun. again and again._

_Then at some point you came here and... the rest is history._

_yes. yes._

_Have you ever done to others what you did to me?_

_no._

San's unconcerned expression turns somber. Something rings in the back of Vivienne's mind; she can't tell if it's her own death scream or that of countless others. Their eyes meet for a moment until San's gaze lowers to the ground.

_i'm sorry._

Not just for what he did to her at the beginning, but for reminding her.

_San._

_i'm so sorry. must be better than **them.** for you._

It feels close to saying a certain three word phrase. Vivienne inches closer to him; she can't remind him of that snake bastard eldest brother; when they're close enough to touch she presses her mouth against one of his horns that have been on the receiving end of so much abuse. San doesn't know what to make of the touch. She rubs their horns together, and more familiar with this San coils his neck around hers and tucks himself under her head. Again Vivienne presses her mouth to the top of his head.

_what is that?_

_Something my mother did for me._

She can feel him smiling.

_I forgive you, brother. Just... let's not make a habit of doing that. I'm fucked up as it is._

_we are both fucked up._

* * *

By the end of the day Rick Stanton and Sam Coleman check in on things at the Yunnan outpost from their positions at Castle Bravo. Their faces blink onscreen, Sam waving in his awkward but endearing way and Rick greeting them with a nasal 'hi, everybody!' to which Ilene drones in response, 'hi, Dr. Rick.'

_"So is the Apocalypse 2.0 underway?"_ Rick deadpans.

"Oh absolutely," Mark drawls back. "We got a new dragon and everything. All she needs is the wings and crowns and a political agenda and it's all systems go."

Ling smirks, gives him a light punch in the arm. "We have new samples in from Monster X."

_"Is that what we're calling her?"_ Sam asks. _"Kinda sounds like a band name."_

"Yeah, it wasn't our idea. But check this out." Ling brings out notes on the latest sample readings. "You know how in the first samples we got, she used to have traces of gold in her skin and bones? Well, now there's no gold at all. I don't know how, but at some point while she was incubating with Mothra, it must have turned into silver."

Mariko furrows her brows. "Weird. Why silver?"

Sam's expression brightens up. _"Oh, I know this one! S__ilver is better at conducting electricity than gold and copper, because it has a greater number of moving atoms. Thing is, silver wiring tends to oxidize and it's rarer than copper, so... yeah."_

"Also, silver was considered a holy metal," Madison chimes in. "Killing vampires and things. I think it was also pretty important in medicine or alchemy. Then again, Judas and thirty pieces of silver..."

"Talk about irony," Martin comments more or less to himself. "The critter that's half-Ghidorah is covered in sacred metal. Hey, if Ghidorah's the Satan to Godzilla's God in this equation, what would that make Monster X? God or devil?"

"I guess it depends on where you're standing at the time," Mark muses.

The exchange makes Ilene purse her lips in thought. She's reminded of something; not a matter of god _or_ devil, but of god _and_ devil. She has a distinct memory of a 'pantheistic and magical being of the absolute'. Who said that again, and why does it strike her so suddenly? It's a Western idea, she knows that. Ilene turns to her daughters and finds them skimming through one her books, looking for pictures. She kneels down and asks to borrow that book, promises to return it when met with initial resistance. With some reluctance the book is handed over; Ilene flips through the pages, searching for something - it's on the tip of her tongue - and this catches Ling's attention.

"Something the matter?"

"I'm looking for something." Not finding it, she returns the book to her gleeful toddlers and turns to Sam's image. "Sam, I need a favor. Can you find something in my files, please? Under E's, I think - Eliphas? It sounds French."

_"Okay, give me a sec..."_

After a moment Sam lets out an "aha!" and pulls up an artistic depiction of the Sabbatic Goat, by one Éliphas Lévi. Ilene stares at the image with hands resting on her hips, drums a finger. It's close, but not quite what she's thinking of. What's more...

"Baphomet?" Martin glances between the scientists. "I thought you guys already gave a Titan that name. He's the one in Morocco, right?"

Mark frowns at the nefarious image. "Yeah. We all know Vivienne compared Ghidorah to Dante's Satan, but I don't know. This is kind of ham-handed."

"Give me a minute, let me think," Ilene says. Maybe saying her thoughts aloud will jog her memory. "Okay. What do we know about Baphomet? Not the Titan, this guy. Even if one doesn't know the full story, one has a basic idea of its associations and depictions in tarot or the occult."

"Well... yeah, I mean. You see a goat head, you think of the devil." Mark shrugs. "I'm out of my depth here, I really don't know what to say."

"That's okay. But there's more to it than that, it's the symbolism." Ilene points to various parts of the image. "Look at all the contradictory elements. Man and monster, male and female, sea and sky - scales under the breasts here, and the wings - light and darkness in the two moons..."

Madison walks up next to Ilene and gestures to a symbol in the being's lap, two intersecting snakes forming a wingless caduceus. "And the snakes! One's white and the other's black."

"Exactly! Baphomet is all of these opposing traits in one single being. And our Monster X, she... no, _they_ have something similar, more than just two heads with their own identities. Terrestrial and extraterrestrial, masculine and feminine, good and bad... they're more than just a chimera. They are an entity of absolution. And this isn't a unique idea; the union of opposites as a divine concept has appeared in religion for millennia. And Carl Jung—"

Ilene trails off. Her face lights up in realization, snaps her fingers.

"Sam, I need my picture files under Jung!"

_"Got it."_

Madison looks at her father, puzzled, but he appears just as baffled. Soon the Baphomet image is accompanied by a series of depictions featuring another similarly chimeric one. Based on the various images, this particular creature has a humanoid body either exposing a pair of breasts or covered in armor, bearing the head of a rooster or rarely that of a lion, and twin snakes for legs. In one hand it carries a whip and the other a shield. Some images show it driving a chariot pulled by four horses, no doubt symbolic of certain ancient elements. Here Madison notices another detail; one drawing shows the creature without armor and weapons, and instead its arms are positioned in benedictions like Baphomet's, one hand pointed up and the other down.

"_Wasn't sure which one you wanted, so..."_

"This is perfect, Sam. Thank you. Everyone?" Ilene gestures to the images. "This is Abraxas. Or, _Abrasax_ in the original Greek."

_"May as well be speaking it, Chen,"_ Rick quips.

"Shut up, Rick."

"I was gonna say, he kinda does look Greco-Roman with the armor," Mark points out. "Is he a god or...?"

Ilene pauses just long enough to answer. "Yes. And no. It's complicated." She flips through another of her books, this one littered with post-it notes. Seeming to find what she'd been hunting for this time, she stands before the images again and focuses on the rooster-headed one.

"Complicated how?" Madison asks.

"It all depends on who in history you ask. There was a religious sect called Gnosticism... well, it's a long story but they were considered heretics. Abraxas has been called a god, but he's also been an archon and aeon - or, the demonic and angelic equivalents - and the Catholic church denounced him as a demon. The Gnostics believed him to be princeps of three-hundred and sixty-five heavens, and standing higher on the celestial totem pole than the Abrahamic God."

_"Heresy indeed,"_ Rick mutters into his flask.

"You mentioned Jung," Mark says. "What do he and Baphomet have to do with Abba... Ab... Abracadabra, and how does it link up with Vi - Monster X?"

Reopening her notes Ilene explains, "Carl Jung had a certain interpretation of this god in one of his books. He viewed Abraxas as a symbol of duality, all opposites combined into a single form. _'That which is spoken by God-the-Sun is life; and that which is spoken by the Devil is death; Abraxas speaketh that hallowed and accursed word, which is life and death at the same time. Abraxas begetteth truth and lying, good and evil, light and darkness in the same word and in the same act. Wherefore is Abraxas terrible.’"_

Silence hangs over them for a moment as they reflect on the passage; once again Madison does some searching of her own, retreating to her bunk for some quiet. She barely catches a final exchange between Rick and Ilene before going out of earshot.

_"So uh, we gonna call her that from now on?"_

"Maybe. I like the way it sounds, but Monster X is starting to grow on me."

Madison puts on her earbuds; eventually her investigation leads her a certain band who'd written a song about it fifteen some-odd years ago. Listening to the lyrics - definitely an ode to Jung's interpretation - she looks at the newly circulated photos of Monster X. As the song draws to a close she rolls the new name around in her head for a bit and then near silently whispers it, as though invoking the name of a new god:

"Titanus Abraxas."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ᚲ - Kenaz. “Torch.” The sixth rune. It represents the domestication of fire, learning to control it for warmth and illumination; the inner fire of wisdom and creativity. It is a rune of knowledge, of learning and teaching.


	11. Ingwaz

ᛜ

_"You might try then, as I did, to find a sky so full of stars it will blind you again. Only no sky can blind you now. Even with all that iridescent magic up there, your eye will no longer linger on the light, it will no longer trace constellations. You’ll care only about the darkness and you’ll watch it for hours, for days, maybe even for years, trying in vain to believe you’re some kind of indispensable, universe-appointed sentinel, as if just by looking you could actually keep it all at bay. It will get so bad you’ll be afraid to look away, you’ll be afraid to sleep."_

—House of Leaves

* * *

Approval was granted for a manned excursion into Monarch Outpost ██ consisting of five teams, three assault and two research, with sufficient equipment to set up a base of operations. V. Tejada has been assigned as an advisor due to extensive experience with the outpost and knowledge of the hostile entities therein (see Lt. Commander Pasternak's footage on 5/16/2020) and Tarkan Çavusgolu has prior experience opposing Alan Jonah during the events after 2014. Assault teams are Mobile Task Forces Theta-1 "Hellcats," Beta-3 "Salamanders" specializing in incendiary weaponry, and Gamma-5 "Wrecking Crew" for demolition and explosives. 

**<Monarch Torch and Bury Operation, 5-██-2020>**

**Team:** Mobile Task Force Theta-1 "Hellcats"

<Video transcript>

> **<BEGIN LOG>**
> 
> **T1-Cap:** Lights, camera. 
> 
> **Çavusgolu:** _Visuals good._
> 
> **T1-Cap:** Mic checks.
> 
> **T1-Alpha:** Check.
> 
> **T1-Charlie:** Check.
> 
> **T1-Bravo:** Check.
> 
> **T1-Foxtrot:** Check-check.
> 
> **T1-Echo:** Check times five.
> 
> **T1-Cap:** Hear that, Command?
> 
> **Tejada:** _Loud and clear. Keep weapons locked and eyes open. Check for weird smells like cooked blood and ozone. No Scooby-Doo let's split up gang shit. Gamma's gonna follow after you and set things up._
> 
> **T1-Cap:** Copy. Let's get to work.
> 
> [Theta-1 descends stairway. T1-Cap looks at a message written in chalk on wall adjacent to the inoperable elevator; _"AND I HEARD AS IT WERE THE NOISE OF THUNDER ONE OF THE FOUR BEASTS SAYING COME AND SEE"_.]
> 
> **Çavusgolu:** _Subtle._
> 
> **T1-Cap:** Trap?
> 
> **Tejada:** _Trap._
> 
> [Theta-1 clears available rooms, encounters structural collapse from Mauzer's previous exploration. With no way across Theta-1 doubles back around to inoperable service elevator. T1-Echo approaches elevator and kneels down, picks up a discarded helmet with mounted camera. He passes it to T1-Cap and shows writing carved into the helmet reading _"watch"_.]
> 
> **T1-Echo:** Check it out. I guess it must've been Krupin's.
> 
> **T1-Charlie:** We just passed this spot. Was that here before?
> 
> **Çavusgolu:** _Negative. Didn't see it on the feed. I guess Shakespeare really wants to give us a show._
> 
> **T1-Cap:** Right. Let's pass that along to Command and see what's on it.
> 
> [Theta-1 resumes exploration. A symbol is drawn on a wall above splatter patterns resembling a stylized Celtic triple-spiral, beside it another written message, _"EYES WILL BE OPENED."_ Remaining rooms are cleared and team descends stairway, approaches collapsed ceiling and mortuary lab. T1-Alpha takes point.]
> 
> **T1-Alpha:** All clear... wait. Wasn't there like a dead caveman in here?
> 
> **Tejada:** _Chuchuna. What's the problem?_
> 
> **T1-Alpha:** Standby. (Pause.) Nope. No cavemen here, Command.
> 
> **Tejada:** _Shit. Alright. Eyes up, guns hot._
> 
> **T1-Alpha:** Aye-aye.
> 
> [Theta-1 soon approaches remains of containment chamber; considerable structural damage along the hallway leading further downstairs. Surroundings are scorched and uneven with impact craters, fluorescent lights destroyed, large gouges scratched into walls and floor. Floor surrounding the chamber is coated in ash. On the wall above the scattered ash piles is written _"lost before they could see gone forever waste waste waste"_. Crude skulls are drawn surrounding the containment chamber doors alongside _"false life false child" "flesh and bone convulsing in its grave,"_ and _"what went wrong?"_ Some of these are written in chalk or possibly blood, others carved by a sharpened edge, or simply scratched on the walls. The chamber itself is just as decorated with uncleaned substances and carvings as in previous exploration, save for new message under the Elder Futhark runes: _"DEAD LANGUAGE FOR A DEAD THING. MY EYES HAVE BEEN OPENED. THE DEAD WILL SEE THE TRUTH AND LIVE AGAIN."_ T1-Echo and T1-Foxtrot clear the chamber and command room.]
> 
> **T1-Foxtrot:** Whew, you smell that?
> 
> **Tejada:** _What?_
> 
> **T1-Foxtrot:** Like when you make instant mac and cheese but you forget the water. That melted microwave smell, you know?
> 
> **Tejada:** _It's just from plasma damage. All the terminals were destroyed and security teams turned to ash._
> 
> **T1-Echo:** Shit, so that's what this is.
> 
> **>>//FRW>**
> 
> [Breath is visible on camera.]
> 
> **T1-Cap:** It's freezing in here. Bravo, you got point.
> 
> [T1-Bravo advances ahead while rooms are checked and cleared. T1-Bravo's voice is muffled by face mask.]
> 
> **T1-Bravo:** Jesus, it stinks. Command, are you seeing this? Smells like blood.
> 
> **Tejada:** _I see it. We're pretty sure Monster X gave us enough power to get the distress signal out after she breached containment. I guess she overheated and popped like a Hot Pocket._
> 
> [T1-Bravo beams flashlight over black splatter patterns on walls, ceiling and floor, taps foot against dried organic substance layered in frost; pulls out test tube from belt and takes a sample.]
> 
> **T1-Bravo:** Command, got something the research teams can poke around with. Gonna send it back up.
> 
> **Çavusgolu:** _Acknowledged. Every little bit helps._
> 
> [Pan up to rubble from more damage leading to a gaping hole in the wall leading into darkness.]
> 
> **T1-Bravo:** Well, that explains it. We got a hole in the wall, like God punched through it. I'm gonna take a look. Goddamn, that's cold.
> 
> [T1-Bravo climbs over the debris and peers through the hole. The flashlight barely shows a cave floor approximately 20-25 meters down and hints of stalactites. T1-Bravo takes a flare from his belt and lights it, throws it into the darkness and illuminating a vast cave complex. Four-toed footprints are visible on the cave floor.]
> 
> **T1-Bravo:** Holy shit.
> 
> **Tejada:** _Yeah._ _That's definitely where Thor came in._
> 
> **Çavusgolu: ** _Put a marker there and we'll set something up._
> 
> **T1-Bravo:** You think something might be moving in and out through this hole?
> 
> **Çavusgolu:** _Let's just say I've had close calls involving Titans in caves. _
> 
> **<END LOG>**

Addendum: Footage from recovered helmet-mounted camera:

> [Static. Video becomes active, but audio is completely cut. Camera appears to be on the floor. After ████ minutes the camera is lifted and turns to focus on a group of individuals surrounding two tables. Whoever holds the camera approaches and moves through the crowd, pans between the bodies of Krupin and Travis occupying each table, both stripped of clothing. Krupin is clearly dead, partially decapitated and blood soaking his table from a severed artery; Travis suffers a self-inflicted gunshot to the head, the bullet having been fired into the lower jaw and nearly passing through the top of his skull. One of the individuals fiddles with a bloody piece of bone still hinged to Travis' skull from the exit wound. A hand covered in black leather glove slaps it away. Pan up to Alan Jonah, face obscured by surgical mask. He carries a metal tray holding syringes filled with an unknown substance and sets it down beside Travis' body, takes one syringe and injects it into the neck.]
> 
> [Visual focuses on Krupin's nearly severed head. An IV stand with bag full of dark fluid is hooked up to the body. A figure approaches by Krupin's head, presumably Jonah, who gingerly reconnects the head to the rest of its neck stump and holds it in place. Another figure takes the remaining syringe and administers it via injection to the neck. Approximately ███ minutes pass until something appears to slide under Krupin's skin. Video cuts out.]

* * *

_we tried_

Her brows furrow. Was that...? She looks at San, but he's finally managed to sleep; Vivienne would ask if he'd said something but feels guilty over interrupting his rest. Still, she could have sworn... there's a tickle at the back of her neck, but she tries brushing it off as evening breeze rolling down from the mountains. It's not until it happens again when she realizes it's not San she's hearing. His voice isn't quite so stilted and halting anymore, and sometimes it seems like he's developing an accent like hers - however that works. Animals can have the equivalent of accents, so why not Titans?

But the voice that's talking now is familiar; and all _wrong._

_we tried at first tried to find meaning in their screams tried to find meaning in yours there was nothing to find_

_That's nice. I'm trying to sleep._

_that was the meaning we found it is nothing there is no meaning we conquered we hunted we killed every world was mindless the ones who made us screamed when we killed them nothing left all gone lives wasted honors meaningless_

She inches closer to Godzilla's sleeping frame, looking for comfort in his bulky shape.

_you were so small before so small and weak and temporary you were mindless and screaming your life meaningless so we snatched you up we killed you yes but we brought you back this one brought you back you are alive because this one brought you back bone singer_

Just ignore it. At least it's the other San talking and not - something vibrates in her ear and a full-body shudder rolls through her. San - _her_ San - stirs but doesn't really wake, opting to coil around her for warmth.

_that one is just a shadow a pale imitation a shed skin that one is a replacement _ _you're replacing serizawa_

Vivienne's eyes shoot open and for an instant her vision turns red. Fists clench so hard the knuckles pop; the shudder flares into a burning sensation. This time San does wake up, startled. He swivels around in search of something until noticing that damned signal crawling inside them - he sees the rage burning in her eyes, nostrils flaring and breaths quickened, like a bull on the verge of stampeding.

_father you call the old man father but you are not his blood he left you behind the deep one let you die you were meaningless so tiny and insignificant no one would notice no one would care this one cared so we brought you back gave you purpose the old man only cared for the deep one he didn't even try to save you_

_Shut up._

_sister?_

_serizawa left you to die_

** _SHUT UP!_ **

Talks like San used to but it's not her San it's Ghidorah it's slipping into her mind looking for weakness and secrets looking for things it can use against her _that goddamn head better shut its mouth or she'll rip its fucking throat out for daring to say Serizawa's name_ she'll teach it to talk about him it didn't know him _how dare it speak about Serizawa like that when IT doesn't even give a shit_

A deep growl rattles her entire skeleton, the reverberations shaking her back to reality. One of Godzilla's gleaming amber eyes stares at her and just now Vivienne realizes she's leapt to her feet, San arcing over her and locking their limbs into place before anything can happen. She stares back into the ancient beast king's gaze, breaths still harsh and jaws clenched to the point of pain, the accusation echoing in her ears.

_heletyoudie _

Block it out. It's just playing with her head. Not today, Satan, go make your mouth useful and suck a cock. She takes deep breaths in and out and recites anything that comes to mind - runes, locations, names, dinosaurs, counts numbers up and down - anything to block out the signal. She's surprised when the earth shifts and a burly mass curves around her and San; Godzilla's muscular arm comes out from its previous position and herds them closer. San comes between the black claws and Vivienne's head, some old instinct still telling him to be on guard. Old rivalries, old habits. Vivienne goes limp and slumps back to the ground, momentarily stunned by their proximity to Godzilla's gills. Does he realize how close they are to such a vulnerable part of him?

There's another rumble from Godzilla's throat, so soft by Titan standards it might as well be purring. The scientist in her is reminded of crocodiles bellowing in a similar way to attract mates, but this doesn't feel like that - it seems more like how a cat purrs to its kittens. Something in her chest cracks at the realization he senses her and San's troubles and is trying to comfort them. She huddles against Godzilla's bulk and after a while San curls around her as well; soon the great saurian's leathery ocean scent and rhythmic thrumming have an almost hypnotic effect on her, like a primal lullaby. Their eyes grow heavy. With any luck, whatever sleep they get will be devoid of dreams or nightmares.

But the reality of Serizawa's death is still raw in her mind and this latest intrusion only rubs salt on the wound. She closes her eyes and is brought back to her lowest point, whispers of that dead mercenary casting doubt on her relationship with Serizawa. It shouldn't bother her. She knew Serizawa, she'd been close enough to learn some of his innermost secrets, how he would awkwardly but earnestly show affection, she and him were practically family; sure, you can know someone for years or even decades without really knowing everything about them, but so what? Vivienne never revealed how she'd felt about Serizawa only because it hadn't felt necessary. It was unspoken. Just like how he rarely if ever allowed himself to show his own feelings; it was _unspoken_ but _felt,_ and so it is _known._

Right?

* * *

**<Search results under #monsterx>**

**@BlogoftheGargantuas**  
Someone uploaded a video of Monster X to YouTube and I managed to download it before it got taken down. Video quality's a total joke, but it's better than nothing. Check it out:

[Video File]

Date Posted: 5/26/2020  
Description: Compilation of short video recordings featuring Monster X during the events of 5/24 through 5/25/2020.

Comments:

> **@WhatTerribleLanguage**  
yall seein this shit??
> 
> **@ThereIsOnlytheEmprah**  
is the shaky cam intentional or are the quakes just that bad. this one makes all the other found footage flicks look like citizen kane.
> 
> **@OfficialMothra**  
[Image macro of Monster X with Titanus Þunraz, accompanying text reading "PATTY CAKE PATTY CAKE".]
> 
> **@[REDACTED]**  
Anyone else feel MOnster X is kinda.. creepy? Not like with the ghidorah head, I mean like in an uncanny valley way??
> 
> **@GoGoGodzilla**  
IT'S ADORABLE THE FUCK ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT
> 
> **@[REDACTED]**  
Now that you mention it there's something weird about it
> 
> **@[REDACTED]**  
must be the hands for feet
> 
> **@BlogoftheGargantuas**  
1/2 I've thought about that. Look at the anatomy. Monster X looks reptilian but it moves like a mammal. The shoulders aren't positioned like a quadruped should be, they're like a biped. And it doesn't seem like how a bear looks when it stands on two legs.
> 
> **@BlogofheGargantuas**  
[Screencap of Monster X on hindquarters.]  
2/2 See how the arms are? Like a primate. Very weird.
> 
> **@[REDACTED]**  
Those are good points and yeah, I was kinda thinking about its behavior here. Like, it doesn't move or act like the other titans.
> 
> **@HumanityHellYeah**  
Great. Uncanny Valley Alien Lizard Person Freak. Can we kill it before it kills us?
> 
> **@[REDACTED]**  
>Titans restore planet's ecosystem  
>Demands all Titans exterminated  
Get a load of this guy.
> 
> **@HumanityHellYeah**  
Fuck you. I just want to go outside without getting stepped on or some shit.
> 
> **@[REDACTED]**  
NOt for nothin, but @humanityhellyeah has a point... if it looks like ghidra and sounds like ghidorah... shouldn't monarch be taking precautions just in case?
> 
> **@HumanityHellYeah**  
As if those egghead retards are any good at "taking precautions".
> 
> **@MonarchRickTheSlick**  
Since you're clearly so knowledgeable and experienced, by all means, give us some ideas. What should we do to prevent a Titan from crushing you in particular to death and ruining your day? Must be an important guy to single yourself out with that scenario. Well? And don't tell us you don't feel like sharing with the class.
> 
> **@OfficialMothra**  
Time once again for a PSA. Listen up, children, this stuff's important! Don't feed the trolls. That is all.

* * *

Martin makes a dissatisfied smack of his lips watching the posted video on his phone. "What a crock of - who shot this footage? Oh, come on... this isn't some cheap-jack tenth-rate found footage movie, hold the damn thing still!"

"Ever run under a Titan's feet before?" Mark points out. "Kinda hard to keep steady with one of those things walking around."

"Yeah, but we were far enough away that it just felt like little baby earthquakes, like construction work done outside your house. Give me a camera and the right angle, and I'll make Monster X look ready for the Oscars. So, when do you guys plan on making a statement about her, anyway?"

Mark looks away. "It's not so simple."

"Seems simple enough to me." Martin just shrugs and returns to his phone, grumbling at the low quality footage.

For his part, Mark wonders how much Martin has gleaned from overhearing their discussion over Viv... Monster X. He seems crafty enough to evade security for multiple days at a time; could he have realized something and is just obfuscating ignorance for now? Or maybe he doesn't know. Ever since Emma's betrayal, it seems like there's a little doubting Thomas in the back of Mark's mind thinking someone knows more than they're letting on or they have an ulterior motive, keeping him on his toes. Maybe it's just a product of those nightmarish events from last year; maybe he's just getting paranoid.

Martin's about to ask something when his attention is diverted to Ilene and Brooks walking by discussing something - Brooks glances his way and noticeably lowers his voice, but he catches on to the subject of interest. There's a particular solemnity whenever Monster X is brought up. That much is unavoidable; there's only so many ways something of this magnitude can be covered up, and Mark is certain at least one or two of the rogue photographers Martin was palling around with must have figured something out. Even the softest whisper from a Titan, no matter how small, is comparable to a megaphone on full blast.

Nearby Ling and Madison are entertaining the twins, Ziyi and Yong, as best a teenager with little experience handling toddlers can. Madison breathes a sigh of relief when their attention turns to Ilene and they scamper off to tug at their mother's pant leg, interrupting the talk with Brooks.

"Vivi! Where's Vivi?" "Dinosaur lady!"

Ilene's expression turns somber. "She's... away. With friends."

Madison bites her lip. Ling had told her how they figured it out before anyone else, somehow recognizing Vivienne in Monster X and just... accepted it. How long can Monarch keep this charade up? It's only a matter of time before word gets out one way or another, and already the news is blowing up with social media devolving into mob mentality, politicians and military leaders trying to maintain neutrality but erring on the side of caution - and she can't really blame them, despite her affection for Vivienne. And if Monarch goes public on Monster X's true nature, what then? Would Vivienne want that, or even allow it? Her mother...

"Who's Vivi?" Martin asks.

"Vivienne Graham," Madison explains. "She used to babysit for the twins sometimes. She's... was a good friend to us."

"Graham... oh. Serizawa's partner." Martin looks like he wants to say something else but decides against it. He's probably got enough experience to not pry when it isn't necessary, not like other journalists who might hound someone day and night just to get a morsel of information. Mark gets up to address Ilene and Brooks.

"What's up?"

Brooks adjusts his glasses. "General updates. Apparently Ren contacted Castle Bravo over something about the Yonaguni Monument in Japan."

"Ren?" Mark blinks. "Serizawa's boy?"

"Yeah. He's started helping out in small ways. Ren's been sharing a correspondence with Professor Masaaki Kimura for a few years now - I guess Serizawas and marine fascination go hand in hand. Since everyone's laser-focused on Monster X they're manning a small expedition into the Yonaguni ruins. Ren is going to give us regular updates as things progress. As for us here, we're planning to approach Monster X to take scans and record her bio-acoustics, among other things. Are you up for a visit?"

Mark remembers a dream from last night; Vivienne as she used to be in life, but her skin charred and gored, blood and frostbite everywhere, veins pulsating with crimson light and her teeth pointed and sharp, bared in either a predatory grin or a manic grimace. It'd been his own idiot fault for triggering that response in her, too caught up in his own guilt to consider what she must have been through. 

He shrugs. "Yeah, I think so."

"Alright. We're gonna grab some equipment and load 'em up into an Osprey. Liftoff's in fifteen."

Martin scans their faces suspiciously. Like Brooks before, Mark glances his way and almost immediately averts his gaze. Finally unable to keep quiet he stands up.

"Okay, what's going on?" Martin demands. "Every time Monster X comes up you all get this weird look on your faces like someone died."

There's a pregnant silence as the scientists exchange looks. The longer it lasts the more Martin's expression says he hit the nail on the head. Brooks and the Chens stare at each other for a moment and an unspoken agreement comes between them. Ilene bends down and picks up her daughters.

"Do you want to see the dinosaur lady?" she asks.

"Yes!"

"Okay. Let's go see her." The girls cling to their mother happily, Ilene giving them a bittersweet smile. She looks at Martin. "I guess you should come too. We'll return your things. Madison, do you...?"

"Yeah, I'll come." Madison makes for her bunk to prepare.

Martin looks a little lost as the scientists bustle around him; soon a guard comes in and foists the confiscated equipment into his arms. Martin meets Brooks' eyes and is met with a sardonic look.

"Just - just like that? You guys are... am I going to...?"

"Stay sharp," Mark tells him. "You better make her look good for the red carpet."

* * *

**<Monarch Torch and Bury Operation, 5-██-2020>**

**Team:** Theta-1 "Hellcats"

<Video description>

> **<BEGIN LOG>**
> 
> [Audio feed is disconnected and video is distorted by frequent bursts of static and visual tearing. Theta-1 is clearing out a small laboratory. T1-Echo pauses by a ██████████ unit and opens the door, revealing shelves of vials and beakers. Most of these are empty and at least two are filled with a dark liquid resembling petrol. All of them are labelled with blood types. Several empty containers are labelled "O-". A hand-written note is left beside these, reading _"need a new donor. last one sucked dry (██-██-████)."_ T1-Echo appears to report it to T1-Cap and deposits both containers into pouch until they can be delivered to research teams.]
> 
> [Other such collections are searched. T1-Foxtrot discovers what appears to be an ████████ ████████████. Discarded paperwork shows ████████████ ██████ between ██ and ██ years of age, check marks beside three mugshots. _"4 MONTHS"_ is circled.]
> 
> **<END LOG>**

**Team:** Theta-1 "Hellcats," Gamma-5 "Wrecking Crew"

<Video transcript>

> **<BEGIN LOG>**
> 
> [Theta-1 approaches ██████████████, followed soon after by Gamma-5. Security measures including optical and hand scans are disabled or destroyed outright. The doors are stuck permanently ajar as though forced open by claws or teeth shredding into the metal. Incoherent messages, hand prints, and the triple-spiral are drawn or carved into the walls and around the smaller doors on either side of the broken entrance. The floor is sticky with an unknown drying substance as determined by the smacking sound left by footsteps. Theta-1 clears the observation room. Communications are peppered with static.]
> 
> **Tejada:** _Oh, shit._
> 
> **G5-Cap:** Ma'am?
> 
> **Tejada:** _I've only been down here a few times since Monster X hatched... _(Static)_ ...no way in hell I was going anywhere near there once the weird-shit-o-meter was cranked to 11. What could've..._
> 
> **G5-Tango:** Shhh. I heard something.
> 
> [Silence. Audio picks up distant metal squealing. Hushed whispers and quiet moans. A distant voice reverberates across the walls, possibly crying out in pain. All present lower voices.]
> 
> **G5-Cap:** I need eyes in there, Zulu.
> 
> **G5-Zulu:** On it. (Kneels down and uses rifle scope to examine interior.) Got live ones in there. I count two... no, three people on gurneys. Female.
> 
> **Tejada:** _What the shit, and they're locked in there with Eddie the Head?_
> 
> **G5-Zulu:** Negative heads, Command.
> 
> [Radio silence.]
> 
> **Tejada:** _What._
> 
> **G5-Zulu:** If there was a dragon head here, it's gone now.
> 
> **Tejada:** _WHAT._
> 
> **G5-Cap:** Orders, Command? Should we go in there?
> 
> **Çavusgolu:** _Negative. Something doesn't feel right. All the scribbles leading up to this psycho mural, not a soul in sight, and instead of Ghidorah's head there are apparently defenseless women in there? These cave paintings might as well be saying "trap"._
> 
> **G5-Zulu:** There's something weird about that far wall. Like part of it caved in.
> 
> **Tejada:** _What the fuck, what the fuck... there's not even, like, pieces of Godzilla's old spines? Those aren't even there?_
> 
> **G5-Zulu:** Negative.
> 
> **Tejada:** _Jesus shit..._
> 
> **G5-Whiskey:** What about this door here on the side? (Opens door, raises flashlight.) Looks like a service tunnel. You know anything about this one?
> 
> **Tejada:** _I've... never actually been in that door. Maybe it leads to another wing? Hell, I don't even know how big this place is—_
> 
> [Sudden tremor. Video feed temporarily cuts off. Distant whimpering, presumably from the civilians within the ██████████████. Video reactivates, distorted by intense visual tearing. Lights flicker from the observation room.]
> 
> **G5-Zulu:** What the hell was that?
> 
> **T1-Charlie:** Hey, looks like we might have some power left. Command, should we hit the lights and see if this trap's for real?
> 
> **Çavusgolu:** _Negative..._ (Static)_ Let's wait until Beta catches up._
> 
> **<END LOG>**

* * *

Regardless of how much she's grown, being in the presence of a Titan has lost none of its power. Godzilla looms over her and San, a mountain of raw strength, and Vivienne can't help feeling nervous. Her lessons with Rodan and Thor have amounted to little more than play-fighting. This is her first real test. Just a single step from him leaves her cowed and backing away. San bumps their heads together with a reassuring purr, settling her nerves somewhat but not enough to stop their hearts from pounding. San always has been encouraging her to fight.

_not a real fight,_ he reminds her, though Vivienne senses a part of him is somewhat disappointed in the idea. _no fear._

_No fear,_ Vivienne agrees despite the knot in her gut. Between the insomnia and her declining mental health, but most of all the insidious whispering from Ghidorah, she worries something might go wrong. Ghidorah could start digging through her skull again, distract her, trigger something—

Godzilla rumbles at her. _Focus. Your head is full._ He tilts his head and gives her that rakish almost-smirk. _Could shake the webs out for you._

_Be gentle, it's my first time._ Vivienne squeezes her eyes shut and feels like kicking herself, even though Godzilla wouldn't understand the meaning.

He snorts, and with a roll of his shoulders approaches, the weight of every step quaking into her like a primal signal; that near-hereditary ancient instinct snapping to life and urging her to _act_ \- to run and hide, or fight. Vivienne moves, no longer backwards but almost shadowing Godzilla, like two predators sizing each other up. She tries to focus on the moment, to not let herself be distracted by him, which on its own is a Herculean task thanks to her lifelong passion for dinosaurs. Part of her just wants to watch him, study and learn everything she can about him. Even that was something she rarely had the freedom to do back in Monarch. 

_gills,_ San tells her.

Wait - what?

Godzilla blasts out a roar and it feels like a punch to the face, reminding Vivienne of oh shit, that's right, there's a giant nuclear amphibian reptile coming right at her. Not thinking she automatically starts running but Godzilla swings out a muscular arm to clothesline her and San, knocking them down flat. He's so massive all it takes is that one arm to pin them down. Vivienne puffs air out in annoyance at herself, San flicking his tongue at her horns. His tone is teasing.

_distracted._

_I know._

Godzilla lifts his arm to free them and Vivienne scrambles to her feet. Come on, think like an animal. She and San are smaller and faster, but because Godzilla is so huge he can move quickly by virtue of his naturally longer legs - what's more, based on the Honolulu footage from some years ago he can be surprisingly fast and dexterous even on land despite his cumbersome girth, rather like a bear. It would be more practical to avoid conflict with a Titan so much bigger than they are; even the male Muto lasted as long as he did because of hit-and-run tactics, but all it took was one good hit to do him in. Think, think - small animals reacting to large predators, how do they react? What were the stories Mark used to tell her about wolverines? Against a bear, a wolverine would scream and hiss and get in its face, but that's just a bluff, right?

Oh... that could work. San keeps his focus on Godzilla while Vivienne and the gray-black saurian circle each other again. Gills, that's right. Focusing on those had helped the Muto pair dominate their last fight with him in San Francisco for a time. But how to get up there? They could channel their storm into a leap, but that would put them at risk of Godzilla's claws and teeth, or... what about the tail?

Godzilla roars again and this time she acts the wolverine to his bear, screams back at him and tries rearing back on two legs to appear larger. He's already seen her do this with Rodan and so far she feels less like a ferocious hunter and more like a squeaking lemming. San joins his wailing roar with her leonine one, boosting her confidence some. Godzilla closes in with a shrill bellow - do they circle around him or risk ducking under him? - and by pure instinctive reflex she swipes her claws at his rapidly approaching snout. What the hell, throw in some more animal tricks. Act like a whole bloody zoo and see what works. Adding to the roars she flares red, thrashes the ground with her tail and pounds her chest like a gorilla. Not convinced, Godzilla swings the side of his head like a wrecking ball at her - leaving himself open!

_no! trap! go around!_

San knows how Godzilla fights, knows how he telegraphs his moves. Trusting his judgement Vivienne scrambles to stop herself mid-leap and rushes into a four-legged sprint around Godzilla, watching him turn his whole body - now she understands; he'd feigned the opening so she'd charge in and then counter by whirling himself around, leaving her body-checked by his bulk. His body turns to reorient himself_—_

_jump now!_

Vivienne obeys, leaping into the air. San takes over here and twists their body in midair, Godzilla's tail slamming into them and knocking the wind out their lungs. Once San relinquishes control Vivienne clutches to the tail for dear life and feels the telltale drop in her stomach when the tail's motion slows and whips back into action, like a roller coaster cart about to plummet down the track. It's the worst possible time to remember, oh yeah, _that's_ why she could never ride a roller coaster without emptying her lunch into the nearest toilet. Well, so far so good - now to climb up his tail without getting thrown off or slammed into the ground. Movies always make it look so easy.

Oh god, now Godzilla stops whirling in a circle and begins vigorously shaking himself and, _oh fuck off_, now she can't see straight enough to climb, let alone do anything but cling to his tail. Who knows, maybe he'll wear himself down just trying to get her off. She doubts that very much, though. Vivienne groans in relief when Godzilla stops rattling his whole body, but it turns into a startled yell when suddenly he's _right there_ roaring at her face - and now they're spinning again, fucking awesome! On the bright side it must look hilarious, Godzilla chasing his tail like this. There's a sudden deceleration that makes her insides rise and just as abruptly they're falling, slamming to the ground like a meteor. Even though the tail cushions the impact, it doesn't keep her ears from ringing or the crash causing her to ache all over, and her grip slackens.

Both hearts leap into her throat when the tail lifts, and with another full-body revolution Godzilla throws his tail upward; it feels like she's been launched from a catapult, and that slack in grip is all it takes for her to slip - oh god, all her insides are weightless - where the hell is the ground?! - but there's a bewildering sense of happiness just now. It's San's feelings, recalling a time when he could still fly, and he stretches their arms out like a pair of wings... up until gravity sends them rocketing back to earth.

Oh. Good.

The wind's roaring in her ears, they're still spinning and getting closer, it looks like Godzilla's looking up at them in some surprise, and all their limbs flail around to desperately catch onto something, anything. Like before they're shocked by a hard impact - she registers something sharp and leathery - and shoots out her arms to grab hold of it when she feels herself still falling, and her claws dig into something_—_

Her ears are blasted by a high screech and registers it as a sound of pain. This time when Godzilla shakes them off she doesn't resist, fingers suddenly sticky with something wet. Not for the first time, she and San collapse to the ground dazed out of their respective gourds, Vivienne hoping her entire center of mass can stop doing cartwheels before she actually gets sick. Vivienne looks up in concern at Godzilla's trumpeting groans once she stops seeing double; Godzilla hisses, claws reaching for his gills, and she can see crimson trailing down from them. Stunned, she looks down at her own claws and finds them coated in blood. The mind reels.

She has drawn _Titan_ blood. _Godzilla's_ blood.

Something inside her thirsts.

Godzilla recovers and approaches her, grunting when she remains transfixed by her stained claws. He nudges her with his snout, finally bringing her back to the present.

_First blood,_ he rumbles. _Well done._

Vivienne blinks. _I... it was an accident. I'm sorry. I didn't..._ her brain trips over itself when she feels something wet flick across her brows. Did - did Godzilla, King of the Monsters, just _lick_ her? She glows with orange-red bioluminescence. Godzilla huffs, probably amused by her reaction. Again Vivienne's gaze is drawn to her claws. Somehow it feels good knowing Godzilla's blood is red, like hers... like it used to be. Though her heart pangs she forces it down. Forget your old ways.

She stretches her tongue out and tastes the blood to clean her claws.

* * *

**<Video surveillance of "Hole in the Wall" on level **██**,** **5-**██**-2020>**

> **<BEGIN LOG>**
> 
> [In addition to planting explosives at strategic locations, MTF Gamma-5 sets up a mounted camera to observe any potential movement in the Hole. Camera runs for ██:██ during operation progress. Night vision activated. MTF Beta-3 passes by, equipped with flamethrowers and ████████ equipment. After ██ ███████ dust falls from the ceiling due to sudden brief tremor. Motion sensors detect movement at █:██am. Large footsteps and slithering. Soon more similar sounds approach, approximately ████ (██) meters closer to the Hole. Camera shakes from vibrations of increasing intensity. An elongated head resembling a reptilian skull slithers into view Specimen is a skullcrawler having scaled the cave wall to approach the Hole.]
> 
> [Skullcrawler examines the interior before slipping its head inside, mouth opening and letting its long prehensile tongue flick at the floor. Skullcrawler inches closer to camera and sniffs, causing the lens to fog. Tongue stretches closer and opens like an octopus splaying its arms. Skullcrawler is interrupted by distant guttural calls. Visual tearing. Skullcrawler retracts its tongue and leaves the Hole.]
> 
> **<END LOG>**

* * *

Martin still can't believe his luck, even as the Osprey roars its way around the sight of Monster X sparring with Godzilla. Just the other day he'd been dodging security and fighting with fellow photographers for anything they can get, and now he has Monarch's permission to record, photograph, and video tape a new Titan in person?

"It's only practical," Brooks tells him, while the Russells are double-checking their own equipment. "We're learning everything we can about her alongside the rest of the world, and people have every right to know what's what. This way we can show the world more of what she's really like without fear of provoking a negative response, and you get to show all those amateurs down there how it's done."

Martin grins, but something in Brooks' wording sticks out to him - 'what she's really like'. That doesn't sound like something a scientist would say about a recently discovered animal, let alone a Titan of unknown species. Or a chimera. That's how Chen described Monster X, right? It sounds like something you'd describe about your pet cat, or something you're personally familiar with, but then... come to think of it, Martin has sensed a strange sort of familiarity when people at Monarch talk about Monster X in addition to the melancholy. Well, he can worry about it later.

Much as he would like to tell the pilot to bring them closer or get them a better angle, he decides against it, and feels better about it when Monster X is thrown into the air. Martin wishes he could see those other so-called photographers' faces when this footage is released. He zooms in on a recovering Monster X apparently in shock and sharing a moment with the big guy, almost laughs when the two-headed drake-chimera-thing lights up like autumn when Godzilla gives them a lick.

Martin's given a jolt when an electronic pulse beats from behind him and he flips around, seeing Mark and Madison crowding around something. He does a monstrous double-take recognizing it as some kind of slapdash mechanical fusion of a college engineering project and a Happy Magic keyboard, of all things.

"What in the hell is that?"

"The ORCA prototype," Mark deadpans. "Looks stupid, I know. I still don't like having it, but... can't deny the last one had its uses." His voice goes into a stage-whisper, something Martin notices when he's referring to events from the past. 

The dopey thing with its cartoon killer whale face and keyboard teeth keeps pulsing on like an artificial heartbeat. Martin looks around and sees a clear reaction from Godzilla and Monster X, all three heads looking their way. It's kind of funny seeing Godzilla tilt his head this way and that like a baffled dog, but both heads on Monster X start to wince in discomfort, the main head actually covering its ears. There's a sudden blast of static from the pilot's headset, and Martin could swear he can hear a voice saying _"SHUT UP!"_ even from here.

"I think they get the picture, doc," the pilot cracks. "I'm also sufficiently deaf now."

Mark rolls his eyes and switches the ORCA off. From his spot, Martin records Monster X's main head tending to her second - its teeth are bared but the face looks petulant and whiny. The main head regards their approaching Osprey and - Martin almost drops his camera in shock - _flips them off._

"Smartass," Ilene smirks, then addresses the pilot. "Are we clear for a landing?"

"LZ might be a little hot after that, but sure."

"We'll be fine," Madison says, strangely assured. Meanwhile, the little twins are vibrating in their seats and eager to see Monster X - why, Martin can't fathom, but then again the Titans _are_ becoming extremely popular with kids now; he definitely remembers seeing plushies of Mothra selling like hotcakes back in Kunming.

Within a few minutes the Osprey has landed on a flat hillside and everybody has piled out. Martin's surprised when Brooks lays a hand on his shoulder and gives him a serious look.

"For the time being, nothing you're about to see from here on is being released to the public," Brooks tells him. "You're going to find out why. Not much point in keeping it from you much longer. We want to maintain some control of the information spreading on Monster X before making any official statements, and let me tell you, that's the definition of 'easier said than done'."

"I don't get it," Martin shrugs. "Why even bother keeping secrets anymore?"

"Like I said, you're gonna find out. Might want to take a seat."

"I'm good." Martin winks and hefts his camera back up, ready to give the world its first real closeup of Monster X, whenever that'll happen. Ziyi and Yong are being held tight in their mother's arms, looking like they're about to meet Santa Claus. But Martin has to admit, meeting a Titan beats the hell out of Santa. While the distant Godzilla twists around to preen his spines, Mark has swapped out the ORCA prototype for a more conventional radio and Madison holds up a connected microphone for the twins.

"VIVI!" they squeal. 

Monster X's approaching form lifts up on two legs and the main head's cranial horn pulses red. From the radio comes a delighted voice. _"Ziyi? Yong?"_

Madison glances at Martin and bites back a laugh. Having put two and two together, his deadpan face turns into a cartoonish expression of shock with skin losing color, eyes bugging out, and jaw dropped. His hands start shaking, threatening to drop his camera.

"Oh shit," the man whispers dumbly. "Oh _shit..._ holy _shit..."_

"Easy!" Mark cuts in and supports the camera. "You wanna break it? Here, I'll hold it. I know my way around these things."

Martin's legs buckle but between Brooks and the pilot they manage to keep him upright. As Monster X approaches his gobsmacked face softens into awe, breaths interspersed with quiet gasps, and it takes a nudge from Mark to remind him to turn his recorder on. Mark lifts the camera and focuses on the Titan's advance. The black and silver Titan lowers herself down like a cat and greets the party with a warm hum vibrating into the ground, the second head peering down at its tiny visitors with vague interest; there's some hesitation from it until the first head clicks encouragingly but seriously - the second head responds with a light warble. A long forked tongue flicks out, scenting the air around them. The twins giggle as the main head leans in with a smile, but the greenish eyes are noticeably bloodshot.

"You don't look so good," Ilene says into the microphone. "Are you sleeping well?"

_"Voices in my head won't let me."_

Martin stammers. "How... how's that...?"

Mark explains, "You know those ghost hunting shows, how spirits or whatever communicate through electronic voice phenomena? It's kinda similar. There's this hokey theory that ancient humans had some psychic link with the Titans, that they could talk to each other. Supposedly Ghidorah could do something similar if you believe the surviving records from Outpost 32. Think of that big horn as a radio tower, and she's manipulating electromagnetic waves to project thoughts into this radio here. That's what I think, anyway."

"Coming from the guy who still believes in the alpha wolf myth?" Brooks smirks, laughing when Mark flips him off.

Ziyi and Yong start babbling at the microphone while Ilene is trying to talk. Rolling her eyes fondly, Ilene explains, "They knew it was you. Long before we figured it out, they knew it was you in that body."

Monster X looks at the toddlers, puzzled. _"How?"_

"Face! Eyes!" Ziyi chirps, to which Yong adds, "Witch nose." Monster X barks a laugh at that. "Vivi, where did you go? Missed your birthday."

The Titan's expression turns sober. _"I... was in a very scary, very bad place. But I made a friend, here."_

_"San,"_ a new halting voice blurts. _"I. Am San. That-is-my-name."_

_"I know what you all are thinking. But San has been good to me. He's a good boy."_

San purrs happily though Mark snorts, still not believing it. Brooks contemplates the two with folded arms, his eyes going back to an earlier time in his life. A wistful smile breaks across his face and he takes his turn with the microphone.

"Like old Hank Marlow and Gunpei Ikari," he says. "I think I understand. Difficult times really have a way of bringing people together."

Monster X returns his smile. _"Thank you, Houston. So. What's this about? And who...?"_

Martin swallows hard and steps back when both heads turn to face him. Fortunately since Martin seems to have lost his power of speech, Brooks runs Monster X through recent events and explains who he is, why he's here.

"The whole world knows about you. Everyone's waiting for us to do something, whether it's a statement or... an attempt on your life."

_"I'm sure Stenz would support the latter."_

Ilene sighs. "Actually, Admiral Stenz is... he's dead. He died taking the fight to Ghidorah in Washington DC, what's left of it."

There's a pause as Monster X gapes down at them. She sort of huffs or wheezes, the sound turning into a chuckle. A hand reaches up to cover her grinning mouth, the sound building into a full on guffaw, but it's as mirthless as the haunted look in her eyes. Madison's whole body shudders at the uncanny giggling, the tenor just barely resembling Ghidorah's wailing giggle, but soon it becomes a mix between laughing and crying. The second head whines at the sound and its horns droop.

What comes out of the radio is mangled by static. _"Sor... sorry... don't kn... I'm s..."_

The Ghidorah head loops around her neck and she gently scratches at the horn spurs at his jawline; Madison never in her life would ever expect to see Ghidorah or a Ghidorah-adjacent creature look so sad. It seems to genuinely care about Vivienne, and if she didn't know any better the way it looks at her might just be with love. It occurs to Madison that she's heard the recordings from that unknown outpost, but she doesn't know a fraction of what must have gone on during that time - she doesn't know what could have brought two beings on completely opposing extremes together. The second head will regard everyone else with distant curiosity, like a kid contemplating what will happen to ants if it does this or that, but with Vivienne its change in character is so raw and real that it gives Madison pause. For some reason, she thinks of Susan Graham.

"Your mother—"

The Titan's entire body stiffens, and there's that wounded animal stare in those greenish eyes again, the swell and flex in her throat as she swallows hard. Mark can actually see the muscles straining in her face, fighting to remain impassive. The second head now regards the tiny humans, but there's no curiosity in its eyes - its expression is hard, baring fangs.

_"Don't,"_ the Ghidorah head intones through the radio. Something in its 'voice' has developed an accent of some kind. _"She. Still hurts."_

"From - from what?"

_"The old man. Se-ri-za-wa."_

Vivienne produces a noise, a sort of voiceless whine, and squeezes her eyes shut at the sound of his name. The second head returns its attention to her, nuzzling and chirruping; the two exchange similar noises among each other a moment - Madison keeps up with the acoustics, noting the cadence of it - it, or _he_ maybe, snakes his tongue out and scents or licks at the building tears in her eyes. Her hands reach up and cup his face, pressing their heads together.

The radio crackles in and out of coherence. _"Seriz... someth... side me... wanted to die... probably would've tried if I cared enough. I just wanted to see him again - I wanted to tell him... never got to tell him... so please... pl... don't give me hope. I can't..."_

Mark's heart grows heavy and it feels like something swells within his jaws. Quietly he hands the camera back to Martin, who till now has been mesmerized by this whole thing and snaps into clarity once it's time for him to work; Mark can't focus on recording, not when his vision is starting to blur. This time Ilene takes over the microphone, and there's a telltale crack in her voice when she talks - Mark remembers how she'd barely maintained composure seeing Serizawa off one last time, how she'd embraced him.

"He loved you too. When you died, it... he wasn't the same. He was good at hiding it, but I could see it. Like the light in his eyes died with you. Sam told me something - it was before we went to revive Godzilla - he found Serizawa outside your old room at Castle Bravo. He was crying. I think... maybe that's partly why he wanted to personally set the nuke, he just... there's no Serizawa without Graham."

Ilene rubs at her eyes and gives a shuddering sigh while Brooks holds her shoulder. Madison bites the insides of her cheeks; the almost mythical way some people regard Serizawa and his sacrifice makes it easy to forget he was human, and maybe Vivienne's apparent death hit him so hard he just... gave up. Apart from the scale and importance of such a task, maybe Serizawa didn't want to spend the rest of his days a hollow shell of what he used to be, shadowed by a void where a dear companion used to be. She can understand the feeling and wonders if it's like losing a limb - the same way an amputee can still feel their missing leg, Madison could feel a phantom of her brother's presence for some time after Andrew died. Maybe Serizawa volunteered believing he'd somehow see Vivienne again, and if that's the case Ghidorah's transforming her into a Titan smacks even more of cruelty.

Madison decides to break the silence. "She's alive."

Vivienne's head doesn't turn to look at her. Just a single eye rolling in its socket to stare at her blankly, unblinking, the second head narrowing its own gaze in suspicion. It makes her stomach churn. Madison reaches for Ilene and she passes on the microphone.

"I'm not saying this to get your hopes up. I know you don't need it. But you do need to know your mother is alive - you deserve to know it."

There's a long pause, the air weighed down by quiet static.

_"...oes she kn...? ...she alri...?"_

"She's..." Madison sighs. "She was like Serizawa, last time we saw each other." There had been a funeral service for Vivienne and Serizawa. Ren Serizawa had showed up and put on a brave face despite the unshed tears in his eyes, but Susan? Her daughter's unexpected death seems to have sucked something out of the poor woman.

"Susan dropped off the map for a few months," Brooks adds. "When your birthday hit, she asked to stay at your old room for a while. Turned into a kind of shrine. She's alive, just... I don't know what to tell her, or how. Hell, I'm scared her heart will give out if we break it to her."

_"I think..."_ Vivienne's intonations are so garbled it takes her a moment to calm down. _"I don't know... I want to see her."_

* * *

**<Monarch Torch and Bury Operation, 5-██-2020>**

**Team(s):** Theta-1 "Hellcats," Beta-3 "Salamanders," Gamma-5 "Wrecking Crew"

<Video transcript>

> [Beta-3 catches up with Theta-1 and Gamma-5 at the doors to the ██████████████.]
> 
> **G5-Cap:** Is it barbecue time already?
> 
> **B3-Cap:** You know it.
> 
> **Çavusgolu:** _All teams be advised, there are skullcrawlers in the area._
> 
> **T1-Alpha:** Repeat? Sounded like you said skullcrawlers.
> 
> **Çavusgolu:** _Matter of fact, I did._
> 
> **G5-Tango:** Skull Island's like on the other side of the world. How the hell did they get here?
> 
> **Çavusgolu:** _There's a possibility there are passageways in the Hollow Earth connecting Skull Island's underground to other parts of the world. My guess is the skullcrawlers heard Ghidorah's wake up call last year and they've finally found a way here. Teams at Skull Island reported Kong keeping them from getting away, but it looks like even he missed some of them._
> 
> **G5-Whiskey:** Oh. Well. No pressure, folks.
> 
> **G5-Cap:** Lock it down, Whiskey. Command, what's the play?
> 
> **Çavusgolu:** Standby.
> 
> [Radio silence. Another soft tremor.]
> 
> **Çavusgolu:** _Okay, here's the deal. Theta-1 is going to hit the lights, then Gamma-5 can scout the place out while Beta-3 keeps an eye on that service tunnel in case anything pops out. Skullcrawlers are as smart as they are mean so they'll want to check out the lights. Open fire when they come sniffing. As for the civilians, use metal detectors in case they have dead man's switches or bombs are strapped under the gurneys. If there's no immediate threat and they're not trapped or armed, you are clear to pull them out and Gamma can plant the remaining charges. Walkout order is Theta, Gamma and civvies, Beta. Get it?_
> 
> **B3-Cap:** Got it. Time to make like Serizawa and get shit done.
> 
> **T1-Cap:** Amen to that.
> 
> [All teams get into position. T1-Cap hits the light switch in observation room and fluorescent lights loudly activate within the chamber, eliciting sounds of shock and discomfort. Feminine voice calls out, "Privet? Eto kto?" Faint echoing in the distance from a different source.]
> 
> **G5-Cap:** Tango, Whiskey, go.
> 
> [G5-Tango and Whiskey take point and investigate the inner chamber. It is remarkably clean compared to the exterior even with a large hole in the far wall and floor. Tango approaches the hole while Whiskey investigates the gurneys; no bombs reported but all three women are each strapped in place, and one of whom is a few months pregnant; Tango throws a lit flare into the hole, illuminating a cave floor similar to the hole some levels up. The rest of Gamma-5 enters the chamber while Whiskey tends to the pregnant woman, who is named Nadezhda, speaking with her in Russian. All spoken Russian has been translated into English.]
> 
> **Nadezhda:** Who are-? Oh god, the lights - you need to hurry.
> 
> **G5-Whiskey:** It's alright. We're getting you out of here. Command, you recognize these three?
> 
> **Tejada:** _Wait. Oh - oh, shit. Yeah, I think these were some of the refugees from Moscow, the ones who just vanished into the ether. One of the guys we picked up was freaking out about his wife._
> 
> **Nadezhda:** My husband, Zima, have you seen him? Is he safe? Is he hurt?
> 
> **G5-Whiskey:** He's safe and sound. Now let's get y'all out of here.
> 
> [Leather straps are cut. G5-Tango keeps watch over the hole and is joined by G5-Zulu.]
> 
> **G5-Romeo:** Jesus. Did the people here... do this to you?
> 
> **Nadezhda:** What - this? (Gestures to belly.) No, this one is Zima's and mine. Four months ago! He was so happy. Esfir and Lubyov— (Points to other two women.) —I don't know why those men took us, but they kept doing things to them, drugging them constantly. So high they're on Mars.
> 
> **Esfir:** Bies. Chort. Man snakes. Devils crawling in the walls. Crawling in me.
> 
> **G5-Cap:** Are there any others? We found things in a lab, like they were taking a lot of blood.
> 
> **Esfir:** Wrung out like towel. Red red red red red. Black.
> 
> **Nadezhda:** I think they're all dead. Never saw what happened, just... never saw them alive again. Bodies taken outside, to... a tunnel, I think? I hear wheels clacking around sometimes, by that wall. (Points to wall where the service tunnel would run.)
> 
> **G5-Whiskey:** Should we take a look in there, Command?
> 
> [Radio silence.]
> 
> **Çavusgolu:** _Beta-3, send in someone to scout the service tunnel. But be quick._
> 
> **B3-Cap:** Golf, you're up.
> 
> [Cut to B3-Golf's camera walking into the tunnel at a brisk pace. Brief audio interference as B3-Golf clears a corner and finds one flight of stairs going down, beams flashlight across the floor. Quickly descends the stairs and suddenly stops. Visual tearing. B3-Golf leans against the rail for a moment, shakes head. Radio contact is heavily distorted with buzzing.]
> 
> **Çavusgolu:** _Golf? We just lost your video feed. What's going on?_
> 
> **B3-Golf:** (Takes slow breaths.) I, uh... just got a little winded there. My ears are ringing. (Sniffs the air.) Smells like... rain?
> 
> **Çavusgolu:** _Fall back to the m—_
> 
> [Communications disconnect.]
> 
> **B3-Golf:** Hello? Command? (Muffled patting.) Shit. Fall back to... (Pause. Looks around.) ...how the fuck'd I get here...?
> 
> [B3-Golf considers the stairs he just descended from but looks at a nearby door and approaches it, turning the handle. The door slides open with quiet creaking and reveals a catwalk built into a cave tunnel. Audio picks up low rumbling, but B3-Golf does not appear to notice. Continues down the catwalk for ██:██ until reaching a cavern mouth opening into darkness. B3-Golf switches off flashlight and activates night vision, scans the area. Visuals tear and remain off-center. B3-Golf appears to suffer another lightheaded sensation and collapses, uses catwalk railing for support. Camera pans down to B3-Golf's knees, blood dripping down presumably from a nosebleed. Muffled shifting cloth from Golf rubbing his face, fingertips wet with smeared blood. Whispers of, "Eyes. My eyes." Pan up to see multiple pairs of eye shine staring at B3-Golf from the darkness.]
> 
> **B3-Golf:** Command? Captain?
> 
> [Rapid approaching footsteps. Humanoid figures rush at B3-Golf; he attempts to life his rifle but is knocked on his back and the camera is thrown askew. Sounds of muffled cries and a struggle. Sudden muffled pop. Animal-like sniffing. Unknown figure in tattered fatigues and muddy boots, only visible from the knees down, shambles into few and picks up B3-Golf's discarded rifle, then lifts one foot. Sounds of cracking and video cuts to static before disconnecting completely.]
> 
> [Cut back to G5-Cap's camera.]
> 
> **B3-Cap:** Son of a - we lost contact. 
> 
> **Tejada:** _Better head out in case whatever happened to the idiot comes sniffing._
> 
> **B3-Cap:** Shut up about my boys.
> 
> **G5-Cap:** What about the head, though? There used to be a Ghidorah head—
> 
> [Ludyov points to the hole.]
> 
> **G5-Cap:** Oh, don't tell me...
> 
> [A sudden stronger tremor shakes the room and the lights flicker. Esfir, Lubyov and Nadezhda cry out. Esfir begins panicking over the "bies" coming. Cut to B3-Cap's helmet-mounted camera looking into the empty service tunnel, night vision on; the tremor leaves Beta-3 shaken and gripping the wall to maintain balance. B3-Cap looks down briefly as she regains her footing, looks up and sees humanoid figures in the tunnel with eyes reflecting light.]
> 
> **B3-Cap:** What the f—
> 
> [One figure lifts a rifle and fires a shot, catches G5-Cap in the shoulder.]
> 
> **B3-Juliet:** Oh shit!
> 
> **B3-Cap:** Open fire!
> 
> [Beta-3 crowds the tunnel entrance and opens with short controlled bursts. Civilians in the chamber scream. Gargled groans and yelps from the figures in the tunnel. B3-Cap throws a grenade into the tunnel and B3-India slams the door shut. The grenade detonates, followed by fleshy visceral sounds and pained screams.]
> 
> **B3-Cap:** Contact! Get those civvies outta here!
> 
> [Cut to G5-Cap's camera. A skullcrawler shoots its head out of the hole with a piercing shriek and scrambles its arms to get inside, claws knocking G5-Tango down and tearing her to shreds before G5-Zulu can assist. All Gamma-5 members not manning the gurneys turn and open fire on the skullcrawler.]
> 
> **T1-Cap:** Double time it, Hellcats! MOVE! _MOVE!_
> 
> [The women, now completely hysterical, are rushed out of the chamber with Theta-1 clearing the path for them, after which B3-Kilo and Hotel come rushing into the chamber with active flamethrowers, setting fire to the skullcrawler. Despite its wounds the skullcrawler appears frantic to enter the chamber as if to escape something in the cave. Another skullcrawler joins the other and forces its muzzle into the hole in a similar frenzy.]
> 
> **B3-Kilo:** OPEN WIDE!
> 
> [B3-Kilo and Hotel chuck incendiary grenades into the hole, detonating and burning the skullcrawlers. Even this doesn't seem to deter either from entering the chamber. A more violent tremor rocks the area followed by tremendous wailing growls. Both skullcrawlers struggle with increasing desperation only for them to get violently pulled back by an unseen force, their screaming interspersed with wet crunching and muffled pops.]
> 
> **G5-Zulu:** What the shit?
> 
> **B3-Kilo:** Forget it! Let's go!
> 
> [Cut to B3-Cap's camera. B3-India reopens the door and beams flashlight into the tunnel. The figures all suffer varying stages of what appears to be acute radiation symptom, however instead of the typical red their skin is turning a jaundice yellow with hardened patches almost resembling scales. Others bear lopsided and grotesque mutations resembling bone cancer, including one whose entire right side of their head appears to be bursting from the inside. All of them lie in piles riddled with gunshots and shrapnel and continue crawling forward, one of which forces itself up to face Beta-3. Despite missing a large chunk of his face from the grenade, the figure is still recognizable as Travis.]
> 
> **B3-Cap:** Oh, Jesus.
> 
> **Tejada:** (Static)
> 
> **Travis:** _LET ... ME ... O U T ..._
> 
> **Tejada:** (Static) _...put it dow..._ (Static) _...or god's sake! KILL IT! IT'S NOT HIM ANYMORE!_
> 
> **B3-Cap:** TORCH IT!
> 
> [B3-Kilo and Hotel rejoin Beta-3 and ignite the service tunnel with their flamethrowers. The mutated beings let out an anguished chorus of shrill inhuman screams; even now the one that used to be Travis attempts to crawl away from the others only for them to latch on and hold tight while their flesh burns. Some appear to dig their elongated digits into his open wounds as if trying to fuse with him. Beta-3 ceases fire and Gamma-5 reconvenes at the chamber entrance.]
> 
> **G5-Cap:** What're you waiting for - what the holy motherfucker is that?!
> 
> **B3-Cap:** The thing we're running away from!
> 
> **Travis:** _ooooaaaaawwwwwwAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH_
> 
> [Video feed cuts out.]
> 
> **<END LOG>**

* * *

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ᛜ - Ingwaz. "Seed." The twenty-second rune. It represents male fertility and gestation, transformation, sexuality and the power of suggestion, but also impotence and immaturity. It is a rune of internal growth and potential energy.


End file.
